So, I’m now approaching the end of Day 2 of this water fast. I’ve done plenty of weight cuts for wrestling over the years and for my recent MMA match, so the feeling of discomfort and slight spacey, detachedness isn’t terribly new to me. That said, I am surprised at the amount of calm and sustained focus I’m already experiencing as well as the recognition of how overstimulated I have become. I’d liken the feeling somewhat to getting a really good sports massage where you realize after the fact just how much stress and tension you were actually holding in your system all this time totally unbeknownst to you. It feels good to take the time to deliberately slow the gears down for a bit.
Another positive side-effect from this fast so far is my experiencing of the usual discomfort of slight hunger and wanting to instinctively eat something in order to buffer that unpleasant feeling, but instead consciously deciding to drink a salt drink, or a coffee, or a tea and choosing to push through the unpleasantness onto the next task. Like I was saying before, 21st century digital man is now so overstimulated that the otherwise normal and default feeling of hard work, sustained attention, physical discomfort, or the mere simplicity of sitting the present moment for more than a few seconds is often now too boring for him to handle for more than a few seconds. By consciously choosing to work through that unpleasantness and to stay in the moment, I feel like I’m beginning to re-awaken a dormant habit and attribute within me; the ability to stay with the discomfort, to work through it and with it, and to not take the easy way out by fleeing to food or some other convenient distraction. It’s a feeling that I remember possessing long ago both as a wrestler and as a soldier; that of self-discipline and self-control. It’s a feeling I miss and would like to get back to very much.
Reflection upon the habitual overconsumption of food has also had me thinking about mindless consumption and mindless consumerism in general; as a vice and bad habit, as default identity and way of being in the world, and as a phenomenological and narrative lens through which we process the world. Put another way, when we fast and realize suddenly that we don’t really need to consume that next meal, next distraction, or next bundle of stimulation in order to be happy, fulfilled, or complete, then a kind of gap is suddenly opened up in one’s thinking whereby one begins to seriously ask,
“What else have I been consuming all this time that I don’t really need in order to truly flourish?”
It’s an interesting and important question; one which we should probably all be taking more seriously especially in these increasingly uncertain times. For there might be a time, perhaps in the near future where such forms of deprivation and austerity will no longer be self-directed or self-imposed.
Lord Jesus Christ Son of God forgive me a sinner 😔
some excellent points in here, Dr. Thanks for sharing your reflections