I am fasting for a medical blood lab right now. I think I will continue until after the lab work for 3+ days. I need this because of the beautiful outcomes of a fast. I love how I feel when I fast. I lose weight because of ketosis. I reset my appetite and habits of eating. I receive clarity for sure and it allows me to see and think easily. I have tried to play tennis in the past and the ball looked like a beach ball when I played while fasting. I could see it so easily and see the spin and movement and hit so well. Of course, I lasted about 10 minutes because I had no fuel in my body. I do receive a clean burning energy to do things like stretch or some ultra light exercise however. Overall, it is a fantastic reset for me and reminds me of how a body can be optimal.
Fasting is a type of boundary that I exercise. It is a boundary with food. It is hard because we need food to live. When I first started and fasted for a long period of time, I felt like I could do anything if I made it 3 or 5 days without food. What can’t I do if I went without sustenance? When I ended the fast, food was so appreciated and tasted so good. I felt good as well. It felt like I was cleansed from the inside out. There is a purification that takes place in the body when you fast because your body is not focused on digestion, but now shifts it’s focus to cellular repair. You can feel this. Our bodies are actually healing and being reset with the internal work it is doing and it translates to the outside where our skin even looks good and is radiant.
There are so many benefits to fasting. I oddly realize that I have a lot of extra time when I fast. So much time is wrapped up in thinking about food, making food, eating and cleaning up after I eat. I am able to use this time to apply to other things I enjoy or even chores I need to accomplish. I end up being reflective and more aware of my feelings. Sometimes we use food to mask what we are thinking and feeling. It can be like a drug for escaping. We indulge our taste buds when we eat which is wonderful. Eating affects our brain and overall mood as well as at the cellular level in the rest of our body. The food we consume directly impacts the brain’s chemistry, our energy levels and our emotional well-being. Food affects the production of chemicals that help regulate mood like serotonin, dopamine and trigger the release of endorphins which create feelings of joy and pleasure. It is easy to escape what is on my mind that I may be needing to think about or deal with. It can certainly be an escape for me.
The other boundaries we must put into our lives can also produce these type of results. We can have more clarity to consider and solve problems. It is funny how when we cut ties with a toxic person or situation, we see things we couldn’t see before. It is sort of like seeing a movie more than once and catching other nuances we did not see the first time. That negative influence we released or blocked clouded the water and kicked up dust to distort our vision. We can have more energy in our lives as our emotional energy is not consumed with dealing with these unnecessary people or situations. It is like we decided not to burn our energy on things that sidetracked us that weren’t beneficial or needed. It is wasted energy we use to satisfy someone else we really don’t want to deal with. We can apply our energy more wisely on the Path we should be on. We can gain more confidence in ourselves and achieve more. Like not eating which is vital to live, we can know that we do not need some people in our lives and our tendency to hold on tightly is not necessary any longer. We gain strength and belief in ourselves without codependency or a need for others’ approval. We can build our self worth. When we do this, we look good to ourselves in our mirror which reflects the leanness we achieved in our lives by having boundaries. We rid ourselves of the fat that is weighing us down. We are lighter on our feet. There is a purification that takes place in the body when you fast because your body is not focused on digestion, but now shifts it’s focus to cellular repair. Our lives are purified and corrected. I am cleansed from the toxic residue of relationships or situations. I rid myself of the cancerous people, things and situations that caused disruption and confusion like the zombie cells that were hurting my body.
Boundaries have been a very big focus for me for a while now. My first orange tabby cat came to me in a medium reading once to talk to me. He said … “I have always loved you for your vulnerability and openness. People are drawn to you for these qualities you possess, but you must start working on your boundaries.” I found this interesting. I always thought of boundaries as a negative. I thought of them as direct opposition to freedom. How wrong I was! Boundaries create freedom. Boundaries are for self-preservation. Boundaries are self-love. They help us take care of ourselves like fasting. They keep us from being tied down and tethered to situations, things and people that are hurting us. They keep the dangerous things out and help us rethink what we put into our lives and bodies. They make us more conscious.
Discipline is related to boundaries. Discipline also was perceived by me to be a negative in the past. Discipline seemed like punishment, but on the contrary, it is the consistent use of boundaries. It is what keeps the walls in place like a wall with buttresses. We must have discipline in our boundaries. We cannot just have boundaries once and think it is forever. We will be tested and must keep them in place with consistent application and our desire for self-care. We will find repeated situations where we may need to apply boundaries that may even be similar to what we have put in place before. Remember though, when we practice anything and boundaries are included, not only do we get better, but it gets easier. This practice is the discipline in action.
I will continue my fast because I have been feeling a bit sluggish. I noticed I have been wanting to eat at night which is a bad thing for me. I wake up full and am slow to move. I have been eating for stimulation which is good when in balance. When I notice these traits in my personal life, I realize there is some emotional fasting I must do. Emotional fasting uses boundaries to guard myself from toxicity and helps me to love myself. I need to see more clearly with my emotional fast as my vision slowly can become cloudy. Fasting historically has been associated with prayer. I think prayer is when we are reflective and have desire for healing. It consists of mantras for health and the recognition of a need for help from a power greater than us. We notice and speak our deeper insights. We are surrendering food with a fast and we also can experience an emotional surrender and surrender to God. My prayers are also a time for me to reflect on areas of my life that need adjusting and to refocus my Path. I am not fixing as much as chiseling off the excess junk to reveal my True Self. Fasting does this too. I want to be aware of my need for emotional boundaries when I fast. I will be fasting from food, the toxicity in my life and the things I am clinging to unnecessarily. I will cut the ties to food, emotional dependency and the negative people and situations that kick up dust on my Path in the next few days. I will have physical, mental and emotional clarity and put my revelations into action. Doing without is sometimes as good as feeding our bodies and lives. I will cleanse and heal and have an energy of Joy with a refocused Path with overall wellness.
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