“Fasting begins the dying process and results in renewal,” by Vicky Lee
Fasting is not the absence of eating. It is the intention of starvation.
It is not accidentally not eating because you forgot, you don’t feel like eating because you’re stressed out or you can’t eat because you’re sick and throw up.
Fasting is the intention to stop eating when you’re perfectly capable of eating. The reason you make this intention is because it induces all these processes within you, psychological, emotional, spiritual and physical—which begins the dying process. The end goal or result of fasting is renewal. But renewal relies on the death of the old:
- old thoughts
- beliefs
- behavioral patterns
- delusional feelings
in order to rebirth the new:
- the ability to sense life
- to smell life
- to hear life
- to see it clearly
- to feel life
It takes all your energy to die. You can’t run errands, talk to people, go to work, attend classes, clean your house, cook food for others or care for others in any way—you can’t do all the things you normally do, when you are fasting. You have to put all your energy into dying.
Why? Because living is a distraction from dying.
When you fast, you are going to your dark place. You are intentionally cutting off all your connections to life, especially to the primary or most significant people in your life. You must do this. Because the people around you will not let you go to your dark place and die. They will keep you alive. They will:
- get mad at you for not eating
- force you to eat
- tempt you to break your fast
- keep talking to you until you can’t take it anymore and need to eat something to have the energy to listen to them chatter
- create drama in your life
A note about drama: Drama grounds you into your body. It forces you to focus on the dirt, the slime, the nitty gritty details, the sheer act and will of survival. It is meaningless darkness. It is a type of darkness that has no purpose. It is like a black hole, or a vacuum that sucks the life force out of you.
Fasting is the opposite. It is purposeful, meaningful darkness. It is like a womb. After spending a period of time in this womb, you are birthed with new life.
With that said, very few people will be allow you to be in a sacred space where you can enter into the dying process, in order to renew yourself. So you have to be very careful who you interact with while you are fasting. For me, its easier to cut off everyone unless its my editor or spiritual mentors. Everyone else will try to drag me into the drama of life.
Tips and tricks for successful fasting:
Open your fast with a prayer stating your intention for fasting, such as, “Dear God, I give you permission to enter into my body with your spirit and change whatever is within me that is blocking me from ________.”
Then, you fill in the blank.
State what the purpose of your fast is.
For example,
- “blocking me from getting into college,”
- or “blocking me from staying married,”
- or “blocking me from having abundance.”
Close your fast with a prayer stating your gratitude for fasting, such as, “Dear God, thank you for this period of trials and the strength to endure the challenge of facing who I really am and everything that’s blocking from being the person I was meant to be. Thank you for_______.”
Then, you fill in the blank.
State what the lessons of your fast are. What did you learn by fasting?
For example,
- “Thank you for teaching me about how my best friend sucks my energy by trying to get me to focus on living her life, instead of my own.”
- And on that note, “Thank you for showing me how to focus on myself, instead of focusing all the time on others.”
- “Thank you for making me understand why I won’t let myself feel lonely.”
- “Thank you giving me clarity on my purpose.”
- “Thanks for teaching me about fear. Now, I feel like I have the power to not let it control me as much.”
I encourage you to be really honest with God when you pray, because fasting is a time when you are alone with God. Let’s face it, who is really with you when you’re dying and won’t walk away when your shit begins to hit the fan? God. God is there with you the whole way during your fast.
When you fast you have to be cognizant that God is monitoring your fast. God is making sure that anything that enters your sacred space is a meaningful part of your dying process. So when you fast, you can trust that God is helping you to design and protect the womb that you are in while you are fasting.
Personally, I keep a Hunger Journal. While I am fasting, I write down every time I feel hungry and what triggers that hunger. As soon as I write down what is triggering my hunger, the hunger goes away. Why? Because I’ve learned the emotional or spiritual lesson that hunger is trying to teach me.
