STEP 37: Fast Gains
What if you didn’t eat for 24 hours? Well, you definitely wouldn’t be spending money on food, at least!
 
Fasting is a part of many monastic traditions, perhaps because it is healthy, but also perhaps because it also asks us to recognise that the “comfort” of just eating when we want to, is giving in to another easy temptation, and we might have better self-awareness if we don’t.
 
Being genuinely hungry is nothing to joke about, but many of us are at least days away from real hunger if we don’t eat. Our bodies have become used to three or even more meals a day, and so cutting back to two meals, or one, or even none, can be a real education about how our bodies react.
 
We will sometimes feel hunger pangs, but it can be truly surprising how quickly they pass. We might also sometimes feel a little light-headed, but that isn’t necessarily a real sensation of weakness but our bodies burning fuel we’re not used to them burning.
 
There are increasing numbers of studies that show fasting has all kinds of health benefits for our bodies and minds: the kinds of benefits we would otherwise need to pay a fortune for in medication or in health farms, but that we can replicate for nothing. Literally, nothing.
 
Perhaps all we need is a zen state of mind. If we cultivate a desire to fast for 24 hours, to see how our body feels, how it copes, how it pushes through, then it will be much easier.
 
If you have a dietary or digestive condition that you think might not benefit from fasting, please check with your doctor (not the internet) before proceeding with this.
 
Otherwise, decide when and what your last meal will be, and what you will allow to pass your lips during your fast. I drink water, some coffee and some tea.

This is an excerpt from The Little Book of Zen Money. Find out more here.