Kathy Freston, author I’ve never heard of, was on Oprah’s show today about reinvention. Amazon tells me she wrote the following:

• Quantum Wellness: A Practical and Spiritual Guide to Health and Happiness
• The One: Finding Soulmate Love and Making It Last
• Expect a Miracle: 7 Spiritual Steps to Finding the Right Relationship

Oprah introduced her as a “spiritual coach.” Freston herself talked about her past career as a model, during which she experienced the usual hypercritical assessments of her looks, self-destructive behavior, and a series of toxic relationships. Only when she turned to a spiritual education approach did things start to turn around for her, she said.

Freston indicated there are eight “pillars” to her inner and outer reinvention:

1. Meditation. Let go of the ego stuff and get back to center.
2. Conscious eating. You stay aware of where your food comes from — how it impacts the environment, how the animals were treated. She’s a vegan (no chicken, steak, fish, eggs, cheese, butter).Oprah joked that even she was thinking about it — just thinking about it. Intriguingly, this one was presented as the “the mother of them all.” It’s about spiritual integrity.

   Now, I don’t agree that spiritual integrity requires vegetarianism, though I too am interested in becoming less dependent on meat. There’s just no way I’m giving up a lamb chop or a kick-ass omelet. Sorry. Ain’t happening.

3. Visualization. Now this one, I believe in fully. How on earth can you achieve something, or make any change, if you can’t SEE yourself doing it? It’s just the fastest, most powerful “trick” for making a lasting, real change in your life that I know of. I highly recommend learning it, and practicing it.
   One simple exercise to get started with it: try to visualize a piece of fruit, like an orange — something mouth-watering. Visualize it as if it were on a table; in your hand; and then, hardest of all, in extreme upclose detail, as if you were a microscopic organism entering through the skin of the orange. See the peel, the zest, the fruit flesh from the perspective of that tiny organism. Because it’s out of our range of experience, it’s most helpful for developing true skill at visualization. I will definitely write on that more later.
4. Self-work. Read constantly. Go inside, learn where you’re stuck, and choose a book that will help you push through those boundaries.
5. Service. Service towards others gets you out of yourself and helps broaden your focus. It also makes you feel better about yourself, which is always a good thing.
6. Having fun, at least once a day. Painting a picture, dancing around the house, whatever.
7. Exercise - at least 30 minutes a day, 3-6 times a week. OK, OK, I get it.
8. Spiritual practice Whatever that might be for you — church or temple, or less organized practices. Even if it is organized religion, I think you should develop a home-based practice, too — how about a daily devotional or prayer time?

The whole concept of the 21-day cleanse is interesting — it’s not a fast, which I don’t believe in. She calls it a gentler approach — just letting up a little on a few things that make your body less than perfectly healthful. But those few things are actually a lot of things: caffeine, alcohol, sugar, animal products, gluten (what the heck? If you’re not allergic or sensitive, why would gluten be a problem?).

For more info on the cleanse, you can visit Oprah’s website. She’s even blogging about her own experience with the cleanse.