For the first time in my life, I will fast from food. I've gone on FB fasts before and they're not easy. But food fasts are different and after Day 1, I've already learned a few lessons.
1. As most people acknowledge, hunger pangs can remind you to focus more on one's spiritual condition. This is true and it is useful.
2. To not be able to eat when one is hungry left me feeling helpless, afraid, and a little angry. Today was just a warm-up fast (missed lunch) so I wasn't terribly hungry for very long, and feeling hungry on the days I teach is not unusual because I usually only eat after my classes are over. But I can imagine how someone who goes hungry for long periods of time might be emotionally and psychologically affected by it. And I assume it would affect one's judgment too.
3. If you break your fast with a normal meal, i.e. no more than you would usually eat, you still feel hungry! This was a surprise to me. Okay, so this could be peculiar to me since I usually feel hungry even after a regular meal on regular days. But....maybe I expected to feel full because I was fasting. If people who are undernourished don't feel full even after they've broken their fasts--and they probably have less than I usually do--then....what does that do to their sense of self and where they are in this world?
4. I'm afraid to exercise this evening because I'm afraid I might black out (partly because I donated blood yesterday too). But people who go hungry don't have a choice over how much labor they do. And exercise is totally fun for me.
I'm usually hungry two hours after I eat every day of the week anyway, but the hunger that fasting causes is different from that other kind of hunger. I'm just fixated on food, that's what I am.
1. As most people acknowledge, hunger pangs can remind you to focus more on one's spiritual condition. This is true and it is useful.
2. To not be able to eat when one is hungry left me feeling helpless, afraid, and a little angry. Today was just a warm-up fast (missed lunch) so I wasn't terribly hungry for very long, and feeling hungry on the days I teach is not unusual because I usually only eat after my classes are over. But I can imagine how someone who goes hungry for long periods of time might be emotionally and psychologically affected by it. And I assume it would affect one's judgment too.
3. If you break your fast with a normal meal, i.e. no more than you would usually eat, you still feel hungry! This was a surprise to me. Okay, so this could be peculiar to me since I usually feel hungry even after a regular meal on regular days. But....maybe I expected to feel full because I was fasting. If people who are undernourished don't feel full even after they've broken their fasts--and they probably have less than I usually do--then....what does that do to their sense of self and where they are in this world?
4. I'm afraid to exercise this evening because I'm afraid I might black out (partly because I donated blood yesterday too). But people who go hungry don't have a choice over how much labor they do. And exercise is totally fun for me.
I'm usually hungry two hours after I eat every day of the week anyway, but the hunger that fasting causes is different from that other kind of hunger. I'm just fixated on food, that's what I am.
Post more on this. Interesting to read your journey into fasting.
ReplyDeleteyou mean not everyone has the same kind of experiences with fasting?? hmmm.
ReplyDeletenope ... diff temperaments, diff experiences?
ReplyDeleteI just finished a book tat you mighty find interesting.
"Sacred Pathways" by Gary Thomas. Just blogged a little on it