#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.