"Every one must study his own nature. Some of you can sustain life with less food than others can, and therefore I desire that he who needs more nourishment shall not be obliged to equal others, but that every one shall give his body what it needs for being an efficient servant of the soul. For as we are obliged to be on our guard against superfluous food which injures body and soul alike, thus we must be on the watch against immoderate fasting, and this the more, because the Lord wants conversion and not victims."
- Francis of Assisi
- Francis of Assisi
And so I did a 1 week fasting during the holy week. That is from April 2 to 8.Yep, seven days of no food only water.
I just want to experience how it feels to fast for an entire week. Although this is not my first time to do fasting. I also have tried it a couple of time already like 2-3 days of fasting but I still eat some fruits. This is the first time I lasted for a week without any food but purely water.
There is actually a 3 day, 7 day, 21 day, 40 day kind of fasting there are even some people who do it upto 3months. And in the near future I'm planning to do a 21 day fast and see how it goes.
To give you a bit of background, I am a vegan for 12years already. I don't eat pork, beef, chicken, or fish. And some products that contain any meat.
While doing the one week fasting I experienced the following:
-a little light headed and dizzy but bearable.
-my focus is on another level, I could easily drop to a altered state in almost an instant.
-whenever I feel hungry I drink lots of water and meditate.
For me the hardest part is the first day. It is where I am really craving for food. But fasting for me is a practice of the control of will. To test if I am still in control of my food intake or the food is in control of me.
"Fasting possesses great power. If practiced with the right intention, it makes man a friend of God. The demons are aware of that."- Tertullian
As I was doing my fasting I was able to do some research and I've learned that fasting has actually a lot of benefits. Experts on fasting cited a handful of benefits and I made a short list.
-You can achieve fast and dramatic weight-loss (I lost almost 5kg within that week)
-The less you eat the longer you live. Fasting is good for the heart and all the internal organs and lessens the cholesterol in the body.
-Your body heal faster when it does not eat a form of hibernation. That is why you lose your appetite when sick. It is advice to not eat when you are recovering from a sickness to heal faster.
-g and fasting helps you reset your digestive system to help you cleanse, a form of hibernation.
-Your mental concentration goes off the charts because your body is not focused on digesting food. That is why it is hard to study or focus on a full stomach.
-Spiritual leaders and healers achieve a certain spiritual state of illumination during fasting that is why Gandhi, Jesus, Daniel and Buddha to name a few fast during their time.
-Fasting helps your body to cleanse your intestines and your entire body because water will help you flush out all the toxins that is harmful in your body.
Those are just some of the benefits of fasting. Fasting is actually easy as long as you don't think about it that much and just go about your daily work you will be able to do it. So you could just go ahead and do it and begin to experience the power of fasting in your life and clean your body to maintain a healthy state of being.
"A change of diet will not benefit a man who will not change his thoughts. Impure thoughts leads to an impure diet. Healthy and pure thoughts leads to a healthy and pure diet."-James Allen
