Fasting serves desire

Sometimes there is something we want in life, but we just cant seem to fully feel the desire for it. We know it could be good for us but we have become so complacent in our current life situation, so fearful of change, or so closed as a result of past hurts and disappointments, that we just don’t seem to really want it enough to generate the desire that would help magnetize it to us. Perhaps we require something that will allow us to feel a void and thus create an intensity and longing to fill that void.

About a year ago a friend of mine sent me an article about a weekly fast that traditional Hindu women keep in order to meet their soul mates. Some married women keep it as well to ensure a harmonious family life. There are many religions and spiritual traditions that include the use of ritual fasting in the attempt to cleanse, become closer to the divine, seek salvation, and atone for misdeeds. There are those who say that the purpose of fasting is not to impress the divine but to alter the person who is fasting. Fasting lets us feel a certain intensity that we do not normally feel when we are well fed. And that intensity can be translated into a yearning – not just for food but for whatever it is that we wish to create in our lives. Fasting can lend an intensity to our prayers which can be a challenging note to strike when we feel comfortable and well fed. Perhaps we can use our desire for food to consciously fuel our desire for other things as well.

I would like to suggest the use of fasting as an agent for increasing desire. Next time you want to invite something into your life, how about setting aside a day a week as a fast day, with the intention to feel the full desire for it, create a space to allow it into your life, and effect any changes in yourself necessary to bring it about.