Ep 154. Detoxing with Lymphatic Drainage: Dry Brushing + Massage

In this episode, Tiffany and Kelly discuss the importance and simplicity of lymphatic drainage for women. They focus on:

•  techniques such as massage and dry brushing
• the benefits of using natural products for detoxification and overall wellness

00:00 Introduction

00:29 Putting Yourself First

03:31 Addressing Parenting Challenges

02:09 Exploring Lymphatic Drainage

Links to all the extra good stuff:

Earthley: 10% discount with code BEAUTIFULONE: HERE

Doc talks Detox: HERE

Red Light and Lymph Supply Amazon List: HERE

Higher Dose Sauna Blanket: HERE

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Submit your answer-on-the-show questions: HERE

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Transcript

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Intro Text 0:00

Welcome to At Home with Kelly and Tiffany, where naturally minded women gather together as we pursue simplicity and confidence in health alternatives, so we can show up better in our busy lives and feel more at home in our bodies. Join your favorite home birth midwife duo for conversation, candor, and community.

0:18

Welcome back to at-home with Tiffany and Kelly. I'm Tiffany. It's not home with Kelly and Tiffany. Oh. I see how you want to put yourself first. Welcome back to at-home with Tiffany. And her little psychic Kelly. Well, we went up to mention your name. We can just be like little sidekick. My cohost. Voice. Me. Hi guys. Do you remember why we put your name first? Because it comes first in the alphabet or maybe like I was in one of those, you know, one of those phases of my humility. Again, it is probably your humility. Because it comes first in the alphabet. Larry, I'm trying to give you the benefit of the doubt. Thank you. Or no, maybe it was your humbleness. I'll give. I think we always do Kelly and Tiffany on everything. Like when we sign off on newsletters. Et cetera. And maybe it's because when I started writing some newsletters, I put myself. The truth comes out. Sorry. If you are not on our newsletter list. Hmm. I don't even know if it's. If it's, if newsletter is the best word for it. I don't know, kids. A weekly. Connecting point. From us to you. But it keeps you posted on stuff that's going on in general, but it's just like, it's like an insider's club. It each week. It has some kind of education tip. Hint. Recipe supplement something right. That just has something to do with women's health in general. Anyways, you can find that link in our show notes and you should. Be in, be in on the end with us. If you like, what you hear here. Then maybe you will like what you read, read. You will well, They're there. So today we're talking about the importance, but also the simplicity of lymphatic drainage for women. And I could. I had to pair, I had to delete so much in these notes that took me a really long time to get them organized because I want to share so much. And it's just, we're not going to be able to on a podcast. So I'm just talking myself through this here. Yeah. We're going to try to share the basics with women, give them an idea of why they need to be doing some of this lymphatic drainage stuff. And then I think we'll probably just need to create some like actual course material for our membership on it, because I have so much that I want to share. So. If you're not on that wait list to get into our membership. Next time we opened the doors that could, that could be a potential place for you to sign up to it. We just have, we have a million things you could sign up for. That is true. But yeah, we'll cover like the basics of things, but just know, keeping your back pocket. That it probably goes even deeper than all the amazing things that we'll share. Oh yeah. And one of the other things that I did to soothe myself in all this deleting I had to do is I'm going to create a link with X with more information for women into learn. Great. So that'll be in the show notes. Also love it too. Just to sooth myself, soothing your soul by educating others. Okay. Before we get into our stuff today, I have a dilemma that I need help solving. And I kind of know what you're going to say about this, but like, I'm really hoping that there's a listener out there. That has a solution to this particular problem, which is something that I was texting you about earlier tonight before we were recording. And that is my kids, my daughters, they are 11 and almost 14. And they're very into skincare and makeup and personal hygiene, which is a wonderful. It could go the other way. I love that they are taking care in their appearance and taking care of themselves and that we have lots of conversation. Opportunity is for. Not to doing that. That's the sole focus of your life. But a part of what has come up over and over again throughout the last several months is what they are allowed to use on their bodies in their body is on their skin, et cetera. And in the past, I've always done like a gentle, like encouragement towards more. Healthful options or products that have, you know, just better toxicity, ratings, cleaner ingredients, et cetera, and have enjoyed teaching them about that. And so they have a baseline for that, which I feel is putting them Whitehead. Light years ahead. Whitehead's. The year, that's how it feels on. Of Mo even most adult women. Yes. However, their brains are severely underdeveloped at this point. And so they can't always make good decisions. And so as a parent, I'm trying to figure out. How much to push on that. How much to ease up and not let it be a source of conflict. And. I've done a little bit of everything in the past. And right now I'm kind of putting my foot down in a new way because. Why would I let my kids put something on their bodies that I would not put on my own? Right. Absolutely. And they're and their systems are very sensitive at this point. Yeah. And, and they're putting a lot of things on, right. Yep. It's a constant putting things on. And so they asked to buy something recently that I said, no, And one of my kids that like actually crushed her soul. Of course it is maybe the end of the world. And for other things in life, I'm just like, no, this is it. I'm your parent. But. Parenting teenagers. In my opinion so far, you don't. Always get the best results by just strong arming your kids. Into. Whatever the belief system is. Right? So there's some things I want to, you know, die on that hill on. And I know that this is really important and I want them to see that. But we're struggling to figure out. How to agree. In a particular way of moving forward. Yeah, that's hard. I feel like, well, it's funny. I have a teenager, but he's a boy. And care zero about skincare. So I gave him. Some tallow balm gave him an EWG like face cleanser and was like, here you go. And he's like this great things. Barely uses them and like could carry less. And then my ten-year-old who is very much in cahoots with. Your two. Could buy every toxic. Product that has ever been featured on YouTube and think that she has curated the best skin care possible. It's fascinating to me. Or she'll watch things and say, well, they said it was clean. They got it, got a good rating. And I'm like, who's rating. Right. And we go, come to find out, but like, it's terrible. Yeah, I've had to, I had to drastically pull back on hers in particular because. A lot of it is me buying things. I'm like, I'm not spending my money on it. So she recently has saved up money from like babysitting and doing different things. And it's like, well, this is my money. And I'm like, yeah. But you live under my roof. So. I'm not letting you use it in that particular way. It's an interesting little conundrum. And I like for a lot of other things that works, right? Like, oh, that's a stupid thing to spend your money on, spend your own money on it and learn that lesson now and just feel the gravity of your choice. Versus. Yeah, I kind of feel the same way about food choices. Right. Like, like. I want us to be balanced as a family, but you're not good at making balanced decisions. So I have to help you a lot yet. There are times when you were making choices away from me. And so if we have this power struggle, right? Oh my gosh. Well, and you don't want to create a complex of any kind. I feel like food in particular is a whole different space of like, sorting through what can become a major issue, especially for girls. Yes. Skincare. I'm kind of like, well, I don't know what to tell you. Like, my daughter wanted this one particular thing for Christmas and she was like, I think my Christmas might be ruined if I don't get it. And I was like, well, you're a brat. Number one. But two, I gave her another brand. That was great. And she was like, oh, I'm actually surprised. Like, I love this so much. And I'm like, oh, that's really fascinating. But my daughter does want to take your daughters to. A store. To buy stuff that I was like 99.9 of the stuff, like percent of the stuff in there, you can't bring home. So you can go, but you're going to hate me. I have 11 it's like, it can be like a window shopping kind of outing, like, oh, just go look at all the stuff and like, just have fun looking at it. Or like, I mean, honestly sample it while you're there. No, like that's fine too. It's not like a daily putting it on all the time. Yeah. And like, how can I, as a parent with information that I know. And I do have influence over what goes in your body right now, and then when it, whatever you do away from me, That you are going to be disobedient in that space. That's on you, right? That's. That's not on me. Right. Turn 18. And like, do whatever terrible things you want to that's on you, but like me and my time and me store. Caring for you and teaching you these things. Now that's my responsibility. So I'm going to own it. Yeah. All right. I worked it out. Good. Good job. The thing is I was going to offer to take. These children to. Like a really clean. Skincare place, but I was like, you won't be able to afford any of. So I'm just going to hold off on that for a little bit until if, as in terms of them trying to buy stuff themselves, I was like, that's, that's not the place. You're just going to be bummed out. So I, what I'm hoping is. Part of my request. I mean, part of it was, I just needed to spend 10 minutes talking about this. So I really appreciate listeners being patient with that. But my, my real question is if any of you are out there and, you know, have a relatively clean. Makeup line that is not really expensive. I would love to know about it because that's part of our issue. Is I like, I buy my kids some of the nicer stuff, but they're not, they're not wearing makeup out of the house. They're just playing with it still, but I don't want them to go by like wet and wild at target. And I put that on their body, you know? So like that's another, that's an, that's another piece of it. I know it's fun. It's an enjoyable. Okay. Speaking of clean, wonderful products and one that absolutely goes along with this topic and episode today, we want to bring the lymphatic cream of earthly wellness back around because it is. The easiest thing to add into this lymphatic drainage idea and earthly wellness, you guys have heard a share on them before every single product they have is beautiful, clean, and a wonderful ingredient list. They don't make makeup. Maybe we need to send in a request of like, can you put some basic makeup things together for us, please? Because their prices are great for like the The level of what they provide. That'd be great. Absolutely. So for example, the lymphatic cream. The the, what is it? The four ounce size, that's pretty standard for like creams, right? It's $13. And I will say. As in terms of talking about this stuff, when I use it like for lymphatic, which I had to use a lot of it while I was on this heavy metal detox and moving my limb around, especially around scar tissue areas I, I sweat. And like so much more. If I did this, did my dry brushing, did my lymphatic massage then went and sweat. When I use the cream, I can, I can feel it actually moving things. It's crazy. So good. So a lymphatic cream is like, it's basically just a lotion. That helps to relieve congestion, lymph node congestion, this cream tackles that congestion at the source. Cause that's where you're putting the cream is on the Le on the lymph nodes in your body. And gently encourages drainage to help you detox, to reduce soreness in those areas and just improve overall wellness, which you guys are going to hear about a ton. You can use it with dry brushing. It's easy to apply again, it's a $13, but you get 10% off your order when you use code beautiful one at checkout. And we'll put all that information in the show notes for you so that you can check it out because what a great way to stack. Some habits. Yeah. And you're going to love looking around the other things that they have. You will not have one thing in your cart. There's no possible way for sure. Okay. So the lymphatic system it's job is basically to protect us from infection and disease and it's part of the body's immune system. So that's something really important to think about because we have lymph nodes all over our body. And they are a part of keeping us healthy and safe lymph fluid passes through those lymph nodes and lymph fluid is basically just the fluid that flows through the lymphatic system. This lymphatic system is comprised of vessels and intervening lymph nodes, whose function are kind of like blood flow in your body. So we're all really familiar with. How the heart and the lungs work to pump blood and oxygen throughout all of the blood vessels in our body. And the lymph has a really similar system. And I was listening to this one particular audio book on. Lymphatic health and the guy was like, it's like Cinderella. It does all of the work and no one ever talks about how important it is. Right. And We have lymph nodes all throughout our body, in our neck, our armpits are growing behind the knees. And we're going to talk about how to take care of those today. Yeah. I don't think I really understood how much stagnation can happen in your body. Depending on foods that you're eating, lifestyle choices, all kinds of things. And I think I was running on a stagnant system in. In certain seasons of my life. But As I was talking about doing that heavy metal detox, I had to actually really manually move limp fluid through this area with scar tissue. And it was getting blocked. And wreaking havoc on that side of my body, which I don't think I would've ever realized it was. Lymph related. Had. We not had, like you not been sharing some things that you were learning. We talked about it recently in the membership and I was like, oh, this is all, all of it's coming together. That this system actually really is kind of the mastermind of what's going on in my body. You have said the thing that like really unlocked this piece for me, like, I've heard about lymphatic drainage. I understand how the system works. I know how to help it along, but I don't think I understood how important it was until I got my thermography done last fall. And as I was reviewing the results, every single hot and congested area on my body was pointing back to. Poor drainage in my lymphatic system. And so I'm like, I got to learn more about this. And so I've just been on a, a. Really. Pretty awesome. Deep dive about it. So for someone who's listening right now, who feels like I'm doing all the things for whatever is happening in your, you know, health and wellness life I would encourage you to take this part more seriously because this is a key. That is. Responsible for so many pieces of our health as women. Yeah. It can really unlock quite a bit for sure. So the lymphatic system in general, it's gonna, you know, help as a one-way drainage system, right. It's gonna move fluid from body tissue into blood circulation. So it's getting it moving and it contains a bunch of white blood cells. Those are called lymphocytes and they're going to fight infection, right. So we're getting it loose. We're moving it. And it's got a bunch of these infection fighters. In it. And then it's going to help get rid of any waste that the cells are making. Right. So in doing so it kind of reminds me of what we were talking about with red light, where like once your system is activated in a certain way, then all of a sudden we see benefits in so many different spaces, keeping inflammation down, lowering disease, risk. Good lymph flow, kind of back to what you're talking about. I. I don't know about thermography, but it lowers your risk of cancer, of GI issues, cognitive decline, heart health so much more. So it really does matter how this is moving through your body. Yeah. And like a really great visual for that is thinking about a river flowing. And is that water freely flowing? It's not getting stuck on a bunch of debris or rocks or twisty bends, and it's clean and clear and just moving along. Or is that a river that is like dirty, stagnant. Has some puddles of, you know, MOS and. Dead things like. Sure. And smells kind of funny, right? So this is like, this is a way of fluid to move throughout our body, really similar to the venous system. So just to help you kind of understand everything is connected to our lymph system. So we want to encourage lymphatic drainage and we want to have that be a part of our daily life, because there are so many ways that you can support this system. Yeah. So, I mean, we even have already talked about sauna rates. Sauna being in the sauna, sweating, that kind of thing. Jumping rebounding. Like trampoline kind of jumping stuff. Muscles using your muscular system when you're exercising, right. Working that with heavier weights and that kind of thing. Getting your heart pumping with any kind of heart rate increase is going to be good. Even deep breathing like your diaphragm is in and of itself an actual pump for that lymph fluid. So really focusing on that, like what a simple thing, even while you're working or. Whatever scrolling Instagram that you can be doing to help support that. Stretching relaxation practices. And even certain foods that you're eating as well, like cooking herbs, dark plants, those kinds of things stimulate the flow of your lymph. So, some of those things are more involved in what you're doing during your day and some of them are not, but they all matter. Yeah, absolutely. So it, it really is a lifestyle piece. It's like, are you moving regularly? Are you taking time to stretch, relax, deep breathe? Are you you know, potential. Potentially. You know, finding ways to challenge your system with rebounding and sauna and getting in some of those, those pieces every single day to keep that fluid moving. But there are some things that impede limb flow, and this was something that was really new to me, the way that I was thinking about it. I hadn't really thought about how body composition or past injuries or some other thing happening physically could impede lymphatic flow so much, but. Fatty tissue. So women who are overweight are going to have a harder time moving that limp because it's basically getting squished and smashed by extra fatty tissue, any scar tissue, like Kelly said with her shoulder that is also going to impede that lymph flow, just not moving. Being sedentary is a risk factor for. Not having enough stimulation in your body to move that high cholesterol damaged or inadequate lymph nodes are a problem. And then chronic and stealth infections. Are going to keep lymph nodes in large and enlarge lymph nodes are. Or not a. They're not moving. They're not a moving lymph node. It's just swollen and doesn't allow the fluid to move through. Yeah. So you may be able to see like, oh, I have a couple of those ticks, but a couple of things that you mentioned of what encourages it. Okay. I can start to implement or think about those things. Right. And so it's not just a, what was me? These are sort of my things that are impeding this lymph flow there's stuff that you can do about it, both in that list, but also specifically what we chatted about in the title of this. But through massage and dry brushing too. Yeah. So let's unpack massage, lymphatic drainage massage basically involves gently manipulating specific areas of your body to help the lint fluid move to an area with working lymph vessels. So we have many different types of these Lindt vessels all throughout our body, and we're going to touch on them. Pun intended. Good one. To, in order to get that fluid moving. So the idea is that we stimulate the lymph nodes and we work to get the fluid to the lymph nodes. There's a lot of different types of lymphatic massage options, depending on the issue that you have or the desired effect that you want. And again, I'm going to give more information in the show notes, because I want you guys to be connected to that information. There's a really cool book out there that I've been enjoying that goes through like lymph massage for. A head cold lymph massage for stress. Ms massage for you know, your period, all kinds of things. So I want you guys to be connected to that information, but a general stimulation of your lymphatic system is just briefly touching or pumping. Seven main lymph clusters. And that is a great place to start. If it just feels like an overwhelming ideas, something new to learn. But it's a supportive measure before any detoxification practice to give these seven points, a little bit of pump, or just to generally fight against just the stagnation that's going to happen in our lives because of generalized information or, you know, anything that, that we have going on that is going to keep limp from moving. Yeah. I, I gave like a little overview of this and the membership and did a video on like, here's how you do it. And I had, and I went through it a couple of times as I'm explaining things and immediately I was like, I have to go get in my sauna bag or do something with this because I could feel it in my body that like everything was moving and I was like, my body needs to detox, whatever this is, I started getting a headache. Like some different types of pressure that I was like, oh, this is different, sweat it out. And was like, oh, my body needed to actually release that. And I didn't even, wasn't even thinking about it. Yes. This is an important part of your detox pathways, right? We. We have an episode on that. You can go back and look for it. If you want to learn all about how to support detox pathways. But the first time that I did this full massage on myself, I was telling Kelly that. I don't know what it is, but as soon as I was done, I felt such a heaviness in my pelvis. That I thought I had to go to the bathroom. And so I actually went and sat on the toilet for a few minutes, just trying to process what happened. Just not typical for me. I usually only get that sensation first thing in the morning. And then I have my poop and I move on with my life, but I was like, oh, I wonder what's. And I think it was just maybe like some gas got moved around or something, but it, there was definitely a response to that. And it's kind of exciting that it is that effective. Yeah, for sure. So, again, just starting out, it doesn't need to be as complicated as maybe it sounds, you're going to take your two fingers, like your pointer and your middle finger there. And as if you're testing like an avocado or a tomato kind of for rightness, that's like as light as you want to go, you can pump in and towards your heart for each of these spots, you're always going to start an end, kind of with that like clavicle collarbone area, that little like a triangle that you can sort of pop out a right. Right by your neck, I suppose. So you'll start there. Right? And then you're going behind your ear. Into your armpit, like the depth of your armpit. Inside your elbow. In your abdomen, like kind of mid. Midway, I suppose I would say in your groin, you can go down through your kind of, pubic bone as well. Behind your knee and your ankles, and then you're going back up to your collarbone. So it's basically all the pits in your body. Yeah. And you are pumping, like, I don't know. How many times do you pump like four or five times? Yeah, it doesn't take it. Doesn't take long. No. And on both sides of your body, you're kind of going through that. And so you go and you hit all those seven sides and then you always start and stop with your termini, which is the point that is in the collarbone area. And that place just holds. All it's kind of like the gateway, it's kind of like grand central station where all of the lymph needs to be moved to and then keeping that open and having. Having lymph be able to move through that easily is what is going to bring that lymph fluid into your circulation. And move it through the rest of your body. So you're, you're able to bring that into just your normal blood circulation and get rid of it as waste. Yeah. So there's all different kinds of combinations of those spots and other things that you can do as well, depending on what you're dealing with in your body. I mean, there's ones for like, you know, facial. Swelling like puffiness that you have a new face or. Arthritis that you're having in your knee, all kinds of stuff that like TIFF was saying that you can focus on. Yeah. And so before I started doing this again, I had not taken it seriously as like a daily lifestyle thing. But I've, after implementing this, I noticed a significant decrease in just feeling. Heavy. Or puffy or just that fullness feeling where you're like, I'm holding water somewhere. Aren't I. Yeah, absolutely. So, I mean, it makes sense. It's moving things. It's good. It's so good. Okay. And the next thing that we want to share with you, ladies is dry brushing and dry brushing benefits, many different things, including stimulating your lymphatic system, exfoliating your skin. Removing toxins, increasing circulation, boosting energy, even some research that shows dry brushing reduces cellulite. So if you want to get really shallow about the reason that you have to do it, A hundred percent do do it for that reason. And if you're doing it for that reason, know that there's all these other really foundational health things that you're also working with. Right. Which is wonderful. So yeah, so dry brushing in and of itself, you'll take a brush, right? And it's a similar idea that we're moving along the lymph system, but the kind of brush that you get actually really does matter. So usually you want something that is a natural. Most of them I think are bores. Hair. I think the majority of them that I have seen out there. Our Boar's hair. You actually got me like two years ago now, a dry brush. From higher dose that has like it's a copper infused. I will tell you what, when I first got it, I was like, that was really thoughtful. Like, I'm not really sure what, how this is going to feel different than a regular dry brush and not kidding. It actually does. The energy is different. And I know that sounds a little like woo. But how I feel after doing it, I'm like, Oh, I'm not going to use the other drive rush anymore. Throw that in the trash. You can get a dry, you can get a really simple and perfectly wonderful dry brush on Amazon for like $5. And it will do the job. They will totally well. And I'll link that for you guys so that if you were like, yes, I want to try dry rushing, then you can jump right on it. And. And in between five and 9:00 PM, it can arrive at your door for 5 99. What a time to be alive. But I'll also link through to I'll link the higher dose one, because that sounds amazing. Yeah, I'm a big fan. So you're going to start with kind of opening your clavicle points with that same pumping massage stuff. And you're using small strokes. When you are dry brushing, you're going to go circular or just small distrait motions. That's totally fine as well. And you're starting at your shoulder and moving towards your clavicle. And remember kind of always to be pulling towards your sternum towards the center of your chest. You can go down through your arms, the rest of your body. You can go over your breasts as well. I don't think that that one is like, talked about enough, but that really is a great way to not only exfoliate skin and stuff that we don't always like actually care for. But to kind of move some of. What's going on in those tissues as well. But then down through your growing your legs, your feet, your ending again with that pumping right by your collar bone, your termini as well. But this is just a great one. It doesn't need to take that long five minutes or so. But it's like a habit stacking thing. Right? You can add massage before, after you can dry brush, then you can take a sauna, you can take a detox bath. It's nice. So nice. So the ideal of dry brushing is really just that like, imagine all your lymph sitting in your limbs and your body and. It's starting to become dirty river. You know, it's just, it's not moving very much. Some animals are wandering from the forest there. Dipping in, maybe they're pooping next to the river. We don't know there's some things happening there. We don't know. We don't know. You just have to, you just got to imagine this. Okay. But then but then the, the heart or the center of your chest is where you want to move all of that river fluid. And so the idea is that all of your strokes are just pulling in, pulling in. So from your heart, you kind of radiate out to the different extremities and tiny little strokes brush, brush, brush, brush, brush, as you go. And then when you get to the end of that, then you want to pull it all back towards your heart again. So then. You might want to do a couple of long strokes on your arms and your abdomen and your legs to kind of like, just get all of that. Pulled towards your heart. Yes for sure. So it's, it's an easy thing. Not you do not need to be intimidated by adding either of these things because they are simple. I mean, lymphatic massage, free, dry brushing. $5. Right. So these are two things that make a huge impact on your overall health that can be implemented right now. I hope you try it. I hope you try one of the things. Yeah. Let us know if you do. Okay. So the show notes again, I'm going to have additional materials, education, resources, where to buy these things. And I'll also throw up information that you can look at, like some videos or like diagrams or something. Cause I know it's, it's difficult to really like visualize. Through audio, but we'll put some things up for you guys to look at and watch so that you can really understand how to do properly. We are excited for you to try it. I hope you do. Okay. We'll catch you next week, ladies. Bye.