When you're consuming poison, you are so accustomed to it, you don't realize it's poison and you don't recognize the adverse affects anymore. You may even find blame in something (or someone) else. Once you distance yourself from poison and give your body and/or mind to adjust to a new baseline, you will become more sensitive to what you had formerly been consuming and may even have the insight to discern how a toxic substance has been affecting you. At that point, it takes a strong will to avoid what you recognized as a poison.
Addiction, dependency, force of habit - these are all forces that work against anyone who is trying to detox. What makes it difficult to pull away from those habits is the pervasiveness and easy access to that which is poisoning you. Toxins come in many different forms. In tangible forms, they are foods, beverages, drugs and other ingestible substances (and you can define ingestion in a variety of ways). The intangible forms are media (what we view or listen to) and our own habits.
One of the most common poisons is refined sugar. It's almost impossible to avoid completely and in small portions, it is not a big deal. Many of us consume large quantities of sugar - more than what can be effectively processed by the human body, and there are numerous adverse effects on the body and mind. I've discovered that by drastically reducing intake of refined sugar, I have not only felt much better (on so many levels) but the cravings for it are reduced exponentially. I no longer have the desire to reach for a soda or have cravings for brownies, ice cream, candy and so forth. I'll occasionally enjoy a piece of dark chocolate, but I can stop at one. If I overindulge in sugar, I notice it immediately - and I have immediate regrets. That's how the detoxification process works.
I'd like to make a comparison to one intangible poison. It appears, by far, the most pervasive subject in the "news" and on social media is politics. It's poison. It poisons the mind and body and it has the effect of consuming a person's time and attention to the point where there is nothing more important... like an addictive drug. I can speak from experience. I've made great efforts to distance myself from politics. It's hard. It's always there, in our faces and in almost every situation, so it's difficult to avoid. There is a healthy level at which one can consume, but once again, many of us consume far too much of this poison, and it's destroying us. The polarizing extremes are unhealthy, and once you step back and distance yourself from the narrow-focused world of politics and refocus on life, you can see the bigger picture and realize how petty and how insignificant the things you once saw as important were. You may come to the realization how your opinions, your arguments and "standing up for your cause" is pointless because the thing that's most important to you this week will be overshadowed by what you are going to fight about this week - and so on, and so forth. It never ends, just like any other addiction that takes over your body, mind and soul.
I would like to give kudos to those who are consciously working on detoxifying their lives. You know who you are and it is evident who many of you are (and some do so without fanfare). It is not easy and I'm not there yet. One of the methods that I've found is to replace a harmful thing with something benign or at least not so harmful. Whatever method works for you, it's a step in the right direction. Let's all keep this up and let's support each other in our efforts. Now that... THAT is how we make the world a better place. Let's give it up for all the heroes who are making efforts to change their lives for the better and thereby making the world a better place collectively.
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