Everything is going a mile a minute. It feels like society’s spinning, and it just goes faster and faster. It’s funny, sometimes you get lost in the insanity. Or maybe it’s not that funny. Regardless, there is a way to cut through the crap and get a glimpse of the true state of affairs. Fasting is a powerful tool for healing, as I’ve already written about in previous articles, in fact it knows no equal. What’s less known is its power of clearing the mental fog that most of us are trapped in most of the time.
It’s strange, when I started to really delve into fasting, doing longer fasts and just generally fasting regularly, it started from a place of wanting to heal my physical body. After achieving near-perfect physical health, however, I started to become more interested in the mental and spiritual aspects. You see, I believe fasting is one of the most potent psychedelic available. When I say psychedelic, I mean in the literal sense, from the Greek roots, clear mind.
After years of dabbling in fasts of various sorts, I’ve found that nothing compares to the mental clarity and peace of mind that comes from fasting longer than, say, 24 hours. Dry fasting in particular seems to be a sure fire way to turn off the inner noise that’s constantly buzzing away in the background. It’s not just a direct attribute of the fast itself, although it is that too, it’s also that the fast seems to point in the direction of simplicity, making known the places where you need to calm down.
For example, in my own case fasting most often points out to me that I’m trying too hard to be productive, and tells me to calm the hell down. It suggests that, actually, it’s okay to not be constantly working, constantly thinking of the next step, constantly trying to educate yourself further. In fact, going too hard on those things may be detrimental to the cause.
The same can be said of mindless surfing of the internet or bingeing on series or videogames or whatever. Fasting will clear things up for you, showing you what you need to change and improve, where you need to put more energy, and where you need to plug up an energy drain. This, to me, is one of the most powerful benefits of following a fasting-focused life, because as much as it gives you a chance to understand what true physical health, strength, and vitality actually look and feel like, the powerful insights and sense of direction that it gives you is incomparable.
The major problem that I have these days lies in repeatedly forgetting this attribute of fasting. It’s like each time I fast longer than 24 hours (I generally eat a meal a day most days, so 20-23 hour fasts are very commonplace, but it’s become more rare for me to fast longer than that in recent months) I rediscover the incredible clarity it offers me. In fact, writing this has motivated me to do a longer fast this weekend, maybe 48 hours? I have a few things on my mind that I would love to clarify and sort out, and I know from experience that a longer fast will help me do just that, if I do it right.
It’s imperative that you listen to the insights you gain during the fast. I’ve had trouble in the past with wanting to just get the fast over with, so I would start distracting myself with Netflix or YouTube. This is a major mistake. I’ve now realized that fasting from food and fasting from media and other stimulation goes hand in hand, that they really complement each other.
If you have constant noise buzzing in your ears, and you’re constantly stimulating your mind with external stuff, you won’t be as receptive to whatever higher intelligence it is that’s trying to communicate, whether that’s internal or external. God or the subconscious. Who really knows, and does it even matter that much anyway? But I digress…
Just know that the clarity and inner peace, along with the incredible health benefits of fasting, are yours if you are able to develop the discipline and self-love to see you through.
As always, may you find the health you seek and deserve.
If you want to delve further into these matters, might I suggest that you check out my book (cha-ching!) Health, Simplified, available through Amazon here. It’s a nice and concise tome on my own healing journey, the insights I’ve gained, and the incredible transformation that’s possible through taking full responsibility of your own health.
You can also check out the other videos on my YouTube channel, where I go deep into various aspects of health.