#20 Mental Fasting (and Slowing) (compare with column 7)
By the Mysterious Dr Bridell
Author's note: This is the twentieth installment of a column that explores a new diet based on mental and spiritual rather than physical paradigms. It is arranged in "bite-sized chunks" that come to you each Friday and that build on each other. It is sometimes called the "eat-half" diet and is centered in some surprisingly simple concepts that require discipline and commitment (and practice) to implement. The physical diet principles, which were presented during the first 12 weeks of the column, will cause healthy weight loss in almost anyone who applies them, and also become a "type" by which to understand the mental and spiritual "bridling principles" that can transform our lives.
We
have established that natural appetites and passions are a gift
from God, and our objective should be to use, control, and appreciate
them. Each week now, we will apply a physical principle
from the "food diet" to a mental concept relating to
the quest for self control and the mastery of all appetites. Compare
the mental concepts of today's column with the physical concepts
or "type" discussed back in Column 7 (from the Bridell
Archives.) Each week now, try to put these mental principles into
practice (while continuing to practice the physical diet principles
and continuing to lose or control your weight). If you missed
any of the earlier columns, catch up by clicking here
to go to the Bridell archives. And remember that Dr Bridell
appreciates feedback and comments as well as questions which you
can send to him by clicking here.
Well, here we go. I'm sure the column on fasting as part
of the physical diet (column 7) was no surprise to most of you.
After all, this is an LDS publication. Most readers fast once
a month anyway, and the physical and dietary benefits of fasting
are well established.
Let’s think back to column 7 on fasting
for a minute (click here
if you want to reread it). What we said, in essence, was
that fasting cleanses the body and increases awareness.
So you probably think that this column will be on the mental and
spiritual benefits of physical fasting, right? Well no,
not actually. Remember that everything physical, particularly
when it comes to dieting, is a type or a "teaching
symbol" for a mental or spiritual truth. So what we
want to do is compare and learn.
Physically, we fast by not taking
nourishment for a period. What is the mental equivalent?
We know that both the body and the mind have need for nourishment.
The body is nourished by the intake of food, and the mind is nourished
by the intake of information, ideas, and insights. Fasting,
both physical and mental, is about halting our intake and cutting
off our external nourishment for a period so that we can turn
more within ourselves and be more in touch with our soul and our
spirit.
So wait a minute, Dr. Bridell. You are comparing physical food
to mental thought and knowledge and education? And you are
saying we should fast from thinking? Why would I want to
not think? I know I eat too much food, but is there such a thing
as too much thought?
Wait! Think about it for a minute (excuse the pun). We
don't fast because there is too much food, but because there is
too much junk food. Fasting cleans us out and re-sets and
recommits us to better quality. There is not too much thought
or too many ideas in the world — just too much junk thought and
bad ideas. By trying not to think for a period — trying
to close out all the noisy clamor of the world — we reset our
minds toward quality thought and begin to discover the treasures
within.
When we are eating, our body has to be busy chewing and digesting
and replenishing our systems. Physical fasting is turning off
the intake so everything can rest and refresh and restart.
When we are inputting data and stimulus and concepts, our mind
has to be busy processing and analyzing and remembering them.
Mental fasting is to discontinue the intake for a while and letting
the mind reboot and respond to what is going on inside of it.
So you have probably guessed it by now. Mental fasting is
meditation.
And what is meditation? Just what we have been saying —
shutting off the outside stimulus and turning off the normal mental
pattern so your brain can stop digesting for a while and just
be still and peaceful and rediscover itself.
There are many meditation techniques, and most of them make meditation
sound and feel much more complicated than it really is.
Meditation, best defined, is simply mental fasting — turning off
the usual "digestion" of analyzing, concentrating, calculating
and processing information and just putting the mind at rest.
You can meditate with a mantra, a sound like "ommm"
that you repeat and focus on. You can meditate by breathing
deeply and trying to think only about the air going in and out
of your lungs. You can meditate with the Zen technique of
just sitting, quiet and relaxed, and emptying your mind.
But let me tell you my favorite way to meditate. It has
only three steps:
- Sit in a comfortable spot and relax. If there is a lot of tension in you, relax your body one part at a time — first your head and neck, then your shoulders, etc.
- Remind yourself that you exist in the here and now. You are in the present. It has never been this moment before and you have never been exactly here before, so everything is new.
- Be aware of everything around you and in you. Don't concentrate on anything or analyze anything or try to figure anything out. Just be aware. Be aware of what is inside your body — of your breath, your heart beating, your kidneys filtering your blood, your hair and nails growing slowly, your skin reproducing and replacing its cells. Be aware of everything outside of you — the temperature, the atmospheric pressure, sounds, smells, how the air feels on your skin. Accept everything as it is and simply be aware of it. Use your whole mind for awareness. Don't let it go off on tangents or worries or conclusions. Just be aware.
The physical fasting challenge is one day a month. Since
the mind is much, much faster than the body, mental fasting ought
to happen more often. Find a little time to meditate every
day, even for a couple of minutes, and find a longer time on Sundays,
when you can sit for a while and really become comfortable with
meditation — when you can be still and know.
There is much more to say on this subject, but I must save some
of it for part three, the spiritual diet. Keep in mind that
we are still in part two, the mental diet, and that there will
be a corresponding spiritual column later.
In the meantime, learn and enjoy the art of mental fasting, which
the world calls meditation.
See you next Friday, when we will look at the mental aspects
of giving and sharing.
Feedback? Comments? Questions? Send an email directly to
Dr. Bridell by clicking here.
