A path to Freedom – Stress Detox by Robin Scherpenhuyzen

We are entering the age of self-improvement, mental health, wellness and striving for balanced and enjoyable lives. During this time do we believe we have found the answers? If we have, are they universally known and being practiced and implemented on a large scale? Let us explore this together.

But first, let me introduce myself. My name is Robin, and together with my mother, and life partner, we run a holistic wellness company – Ke Karabo (Pty) Ltd – that is focussed on bringing easily accessible, simple, and effective tools and methods to people from all walks of life, for their healing, well-being, and success. So, in a nutshell, this age of self-improvement, is where mine and my family’s passion lies. We want to see a world where humanity is united and has many useful practices and paths that assist all of us to thrive. These practices and paths should also positively impact the environment we are part of. We believe that all of us can live a beautiful life together, and we have it within us right now to achieve this.

Now that I have introduced myself, there might be some questions about me popping into your mind, and you may even have some conclusions and perspectives already forming. These ideas could be positive or negative, and this is a perfectly natural human trait. However, this is where one of humanity’s challenges lie, we tend to want to categorise everything into little boxes, which is an ongoing process, and if left unchecked can lead to stress and anxiety.

The nervous system has a function to categorise everything we are experiencing through our 5 senses into two major groups: I resonate with this, or I don’t resonate with this; or more simply put, this will not hurt me, or this will hurt me. Our minds are constantly judging and categorising everything, we experience, including our own thoughts and emotions.

I am sure many of us can relate to this, and some of us might even be aware that this is an aspect of our survival mechanism. Now, this might be important for our survival in a dangerous environment with scarce resources and competition. What about in a world like we live in today, where there is an abundance of resources, most life-threatening dangers already have solutions, and there is large capacity for cooperation and communication?

In our current way of life, this unconscious survival mechanism can be quite detrimental to our well-being, let me explain why. It is a very old system in terms of human evolution and is concentrated in a part of our nervous system that closely resembles the nervous system of a crocodile. This reptile is known as “Evolutions Greatest Survivor”, which is also the title of a book about this ancient species, that has been around since the dinosaurs. It is written by Lynne Kelly, an Australian writer, researcher, and science educator.

This ancient part of us is an automatic response system and thus functions, for the most part, without our conscious awareness or effort. It uses our past experiences and collective memory to assess whether something is a threat to our survival. It assists the body to deploy extra energy to either fight off a potential threat or run away from it. This system can be very effective at protecting our physical existence. However, it has some negative side-effects, especially if it is overactive. It can run-down our immune system making us susceptible to illness and disease, it can also lead to early ageing, fatigue, mental health issues like depression, as well as “brain fogginess”. It is also associated with behaviors like being self-centered, anti-social, having a lack of empathy and being intolerant. Does this sound familiar? Are these not some of the widespread challenges we are facing as humanity today?

So, let me go back to the first question I asked at the beginning of this article – in this age of self-improvement, mental health, wellness and striving for balanced and enjoyable lives, do we believe that we have found the answers? Yes, we have, in our modern and technologically advanced society we have found many good answers, like certain therapies, holistic health practices and other natural remedies that are effective.

To answer the second question, are these answers universally known, implemented, and assimilated in our society? Well, if this was the case, I would not be writing this article. So, the answer is no – even though we understand what is holding us back from finding greater wellbeing, and we have the solutions that are scientifically studied and proven to be effective – we do not agree on these solutions, and the knowledge of them is also not spread to every part of our society. It is only a small percentage that is holding this wisdom.

So, what is stopping us or holding us back? Here is a great irony, the same part of our nervous system that has helped us survive in times of scarcity and danger, is the reason why we struggle to assimilate new information and practices that could potentially support us in these modern times. Our survival mechanism cannot handle radical change, or new information that conflicts with our previous conscious or unconscious understanding of what has “worked”. In-fact it is so effective at ensuring that no new information “messes” with the system, it uses fear, a very powerful human emotion, to ensure that we cling to our “old ways”. The survival instinct makes us fear change, no matter how irrational it may seem. Here is a simplistic example of this, when you were a child, you may have experienced your eyes burning when they got soap in them. However, in modern times, many of the soaps we use are much gentler and don does not burn the eyes like they used to, and despite us knowing this, we still close our eyes tightly when we wash ourselves.

The good news is that, in the process of our evolution, higher functioning in our nervous system emerged, that could assist us to shift out of survival mode and move into what I call “thrive mode”. What is so amazing about this part of our nervous system is that it allows us to still access the survival part and use it when necessary, and hence it has been credited with the executive functioning of our nervous system. It is associated with a strong immune system, anti-ageing, balanced energy levels, feeling good, having mental clarity, being creative, problem solving, and big picture thinking. It is also associated with being calm, feeling settled and being able to create and maintain mutually beneficial relationships with other people and other aspects of our environment.

Now doesn’t this sound familiar? Is this not what many of us are striving for on our personal development journeys? So why are we not just accessing the system that we already have?

Because our systems are polluted with stress. Our crocodile brains have been over-active for long periods of time, and the chemicals and hormones that are released during this activity, have the effect of disconnecting us from the higher functioning of our brains. In some extreme cases, because of an excess of these chemicals and hormones, we are not able to access this executive functioning at all, however in most cases, we can access it, but just not for periods long enough for us to get the full benefits, like anti-ageing, strong immunity, and mental sharpness. The answer is that we need to detox ourselves of stress, which has accumulated over long periods of time, to have a chance of consciously accessing the higher functions of our existence and moving away from being stuck in the lower functions.

This is where me and my family come in – through our personal journeys and the journeys of many beautiful people, we have come across a very simple solution to detox ourselves of stress, and to kick start us on a journey towards thriving. What is so beautiful, is that this intervention is based on ancient wisdom (yes, we have known the answers for a very long-time, and it beautifully aligns to and supports a lot of the current research into mental health and wellness and general well-being.

Ke Karabo has partnered with an organisation called Ekam (www.ekam.org) in India, the world-renowned consciousness and meditation school as well as the world center for enlightenment, to bring a two-day program, that will effectively detox your body, mind, and consciousness of stress and put you on a path toward freedom from stress and its side effects.

This two-day journey is hosted on our farm, North of Johannesburg, South Africa, in a tranquil setting within a nature reserve. We host the program in-person and online. For the in-person detox we limit the number of people who can attend to 25, and for the online detox we limit it to 50 people. For the in-person journey, all your meals and refreshments are included, these meals are specially curated to support the detox process, and if you wish to stay over, there are many beautiful accommodation options near our facility.

This two-day detox is a meditative journey, that imparts valuable wisdom and assists attendees to gain personal insights, allowing people of all backgrounds, cultures, and beliefs to tap into their own power and belief system, and integrate wisdom that has influenced all that we know today, to create deeper understanding and knowledge of what may have been a mystery before. You will leave this detox feeling recharged and relaxed, filled with valuable insights, and tools to help you navigate our modern lifestyles.

Science has started to prove how your enhanced state of being and consciousness, can impact those that are near and dear to you, just through your presence alone. So, by embarking on a journey like this, you immediately assist the collective to be in a better place, and thus the more of us that detox ourselves of stress, the more people around us will naturally move out of stress and into thriving states of being. This is something truly incredible to know.

So, who can attend Stress Detox? Anyone over the age of 16 who is interested in or already embarking on a journey of self-discovery and improvement, and for those who want to have a positive effect on our world.

We encourage corporates to send their executive and management teams on a two-day detox journey with us, as this can have a profound impact on the overall culture, productivity and well-being of an organisation and its people. If a corporate wants to have bigger groups attending, we also host an introductory 3-hour program, which is very effective at dealing with work-place stress, and there is also a full-day corporate detox, which goes a lot deeper for bigger groups and assists employees in their personal space.

Let me close by saying the following – the answers to all the problems we are facing as humanity lie within. If we give ourselves the opportunity to look within, without any limitation, fear, or judgement, we can uncover an unlimited potential to thrive.

Thank you for reading this, I sincerely hope that something has resonated with you and that you are encouraged to take the next step to a thriving and successful life.

Please visit our website: www.kekarabo.africa/events for more details on our next Stress Detox event.

Robin Scherpenhuyzen
Director and Co-Founder
Ke Karabo – It is the Answer