Fasting is a rewarding devotion to wholistic renewal and health. This spiritual practice involves a faithful discipline of the body, mind and spirit. Within a period of fasting, one diminishes one perspective—eating, while exaggerating another—mental or spiritual clarity.
The manipulation of these realities proves to us that we are beyond our physical body and our mental intellect; we are something else. The following are observations taken from my personal encounters with fasting and from listening to others’ perspectives on fasting.
The fear of hunger
Taking the step towards fasting is acknowledging, even perhaps subconsciously, that there will be a natural battle with hunger. This battle symbolizes one’s struggle of mind over matter.
One time, when I was going with a group mostly made up of college students to deliver food and clothes to a homeless population, one of the leaders spoke beforehand to the group. He instructed us, while on this mission, not to say we were hungry or starving. He advised us that we did not know what hunger was, compared to the people we were about to meet.
As both a glutton and a citizen of a first-world culture, every time my stomach rumbles, I remember that meaningful and impactful instruction he shared.
Hunger in the present moment
Through various personally chosen fasts, I have actually reconstructed my association with hunger from a fear of non-satiation into an emotional and satisfying feeling. When my stomach rumbles, not only is it a reminder of the lack of plenty that I usually have, but hunger also puts my mind in a state of gratefulness and readiness—gratefulness that I have experienced satiation in the past, and readiness (not anticipation) to receive that which will satisfy in the future.
The feeling of hunger is no longer associated with a fear of having no food, but rather, it is about living in the moment of hunger, experiencing the temporary, painful rumble, and telling my body it will have to wait.
Detoxing
Eating is essentially consuming energy via food. Allowing the body to not eat is, by default, telling the body to find energy from other sources.
I have heard that, when it is hungry and food is not provided, the body will find old storage units of energy and use those. This type of energy can refer to anything from unused foods to feeding off the energy from the environment, such as that coming from sunshine. These emergency bits of storage, including toxins that we catch from our environment, as well as mixed vibrations of our spirit and the spirit of others, are all wiped clean and reset when one is undergoing a fast.
People who fast usually talk of feeling cleaner and purer. It is essentially a process of forgiveness and a reconciliation with who I am—body, mind, and soul—that reminds my mind of me. Because distractions are intensely limited during a fast, the time I spend fasting allows me to recentre and get in touch with who I am.
My social life
One time, I chose to relinquish social interaction and communication with friends as a form of fasting. Because my social life was becoming too much of a distraction to my spiritual life, I wanted to rid my life of social interactions for a time by doing away with social media, fun chats with friends in person and even religious fellowship. My intention was to gain spiritual renewal and insight.
The exact opposite was achieved. My psyche was deprived of a sense of community, fun, and most importantly, love. I drifted into a state of loneliness and confusion, not really clear on any direction or judgment. This was while I was part of a religious community and did not yet realize my spiritual state of existence. My social life equalled my religious life; I took away from myself the very fabric and connection I had with Spirit.
Fasting as a dedicated practice of returning to the basics and remembering that which is hidden beneath the loudness of life took me to a place of mental illness. From this experience, I can say that it is important to stay connected with other people, but to keep such a gift moderated and disciplined, just like eating food should be.
Water cleansing
When I’m not fasting, water is not my favourite drink, though I choose it at almost every meal. However, when fasting, water becomes more valuable. As a simple triune construction of hydrogen and oxygen elements, water is a very basic, yet powerful form of nature.
I used to say that water does not have a taste, that it was an absolute zero for taste comparisons. That was before I focused in on it and gave it a chance. Once I took all the other tastes away for a time, I discovered how valuable and likable it actually is.
Resetting my expectations of tasty drinking to an absolute zero is already a restart and renewal process in itself. Furthermore, drinking becomes a meditative and contemplative process.
Sipping on the water, while enjoying the feel of it in my mouth, I am connected to an ethereal Wave, a Movement, a Dance. I am reminded that my body can move and illusively pierce the liquid quality of water. I see this analogy as illustrating that my body is separate from my spirit; that my spirit is of permeable form, at least so far as we understand this physical world.
As I drink water to try to escape hunger, I feel it run down my throat, entering and filling my belly. I envision this powerful rush of nature taking any toxins and unnecessary garbage away with it, and also replenishing the most absorbent layers of my body that are thirsty for it. Like a heavy waterfall, I imagine it bursting through and executing the impurities—physical, emotional and spiritual.
What insights have you gained from your journeys through fasting? Besides food, have you fasted from anything else and gained a fresh perspective? Let us know in the Comments section below.
