Connecting at the Threshold

Along with drinking at least sixty-four ounces of distilled, purified or filtered water and breaking the fast in a healthy and safe way, mindfulness is an essential component of our fasting. Being in each moment fully, just as it is, with compassion and without judgment, helps us to see the true perfection in all things and the truth that there is nothing but Now. We cannot fix what is past, nor can we move beyond today to some more appealing future. When we understand this, we are able to access the present moment and use for all of its inherent advantages, knowing that the answer to the critical question, the insight we've been searching for and the grace we know to be available to us, all exist in the Now.

Fasting is a particularly opportune time to practice mindfulness. While fasting we are so much more aware of our physical selves; experiencing the body as it goes from full to a gentle emptiness. So it is a natural transition to train the spotlight of that awareness on each moment of the day. Although this is a simple practice to perform, the difficulty comes in remembering to do it. We spend so much of our day focused on the past or worried about the future that it rarely, if ever, occurs to us that the gift of the present moment – the encouraging smile of the one sitting across from us or the kindness of our neighbor – is there as the answer to the prayer we've been praying for so long.

When I am having a particularly difficult time staying in the moment I do what my husband and I have termed the "threshold practice." Mindfulness practitioners all over the world have some version of this practice that they employ in an effort to stay present. It requires only that I drop into the Now each time I cross a threshold in my home. If my telephone rings and I have to go to the kitchen to answer it, I make sure that when I move through the doorway from the living room to the kitchen I am fully aware of my breath, movements, and state of mind. This has been a revealing practice in that I have caught myself being a million miles away from the spot in which I am standing, feeling anxious or melancholy, frustrated or even overly excited. Crossing that threshold allows me to reconnect with the present moment, to just be walking to the telephone. Just breathing in a normal measured pace. Just being in the safe space of my home where nothing is happening except that I am moving towards the steady ring.

Practicing in this way keeps the stress at bay, keeps me available and responsive (as opposed to reactive) when my presence or attention is suddenly needed elsewhere. It regularly leads me towards a calm where I can hear what needs to be done or said next, so I error in word and deed less frequently.

Jon Kabat-Zinn writes about his own version of the threshold practice in his seminal book on Mindfulness entitled "Wherever You Go, There You Are."

"Try to use ordinary repetitive occasions in your own house as invitations to practice mindfulness. Going to the front door, answering the telephone, seeking out someone else in the house to speak with, going to the bathroom, getting the laundry our of the dryer, going to the refrigerator, can all be occasions to slow down and be in touch with the present moment. Notice the inner feelings which push you towards the telephone or doorbell on the first ring. Why does your response time have to be so fast that it pulls you out of the life you were living in the preceding moment? Can these transitions become more graceful? Can you be more where you find yourself, all the time…..Can you make your entire day as it unfolds into an occasion to be present or to bring yourself back to the present over and over again?"

In Gratitude

We owe it to the creator to be present for this life, awake for this journey, alive for this ride. When a gift like this is given; a life for a while, we must make something bloom, fashion wings to fly somehow.

Food for the Soul: Controlling Our Tongues

"If we cannot control our appetites and hold to a simple fast, how can we eventually overcome the temptation to judge and condemn others and succeed at the formidable task of controlling our tongues"

-Bishop Chrysostomos

Gaining Perspective Through Fasting

In Carole Garibaldi Rogers' book "Fasting: Exploring a Great Spiritual Practice," writer Mary Aktay talks about the revelation that came to her while fasting during the holy month of Ramadan.

"The rationale in Ramadan is that it's not about giving up food. It's about not doing anything else during the day that would take your mind off God. At first I wondered how that could be since when you're hungry all you can think of is food. Then, as I got older and wiser, I started thinking , well, where does the food come from? The food comes from the grace of God. And then that brought me into justice issues and solidarity with the poor. The food comes from the grace of God, but it also comes from the sweat and labor of people like the migrant farm workers."

The Gift of Goodbye

Often when one even thinks about the idea of fasting, apprehension descends like autumn nightfall. Many of us have spent so much time cultivating an intimate or oppositional relationship with food, that the idea of letting go, even for a day, is too terrifying to contemplate.

Below is a poem that I first heard while on a seven-day silent meditation retreat. It spoke to those contracted places inside of myself where I hold on, often for dear life, to things, attitudes and positions that I know are no longer serving me. Hearing this poem gave me courage and wings.

Adios

It is a good word, rolling off the tongue
no matter what language you were born with,
Use it. Learn where it begins,
the small alphabet of departure,
how long it takes to think of it,
then say, then be heard.

Marry it. More than any golden ring,
it shines, it shines.
Wear it on every finger
till your hands dance,
touching everything easily,
letting everything, easily, go.

Strap it to your back like wings.
Or a kite-tail. The stream of air behind a jet.
If you are known for anything,
let it be the way you rise out of sight
when your work is finished.

Think of things that linger: leaves,
cartons and napkins, the damp smell of mold.

Think of things that disappear.

Think of what you love best,
what brings tears into your eyes.

Something that said adios to you
before you knew what it meant
or how long it was for.

Explain little, the word explains itself.
Later perhaps. Lessons following lessons,
like silence following sound.


~Naomi Shihab Nye
from Words Under the Words

Being fed by more than food

"Fasting reminds us that we are sustained 'by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God' (Matthew 4:4) Food does not sustain us; God sustains us."  -Richard J. Foster

Fasting and Exercise

While kickboxing and spinning classes might go over well just before a breakfast of steelcut oatmeal and berries, a fasting body needs as much physical rest as it can get. The physiological work and repair that happens during the fasting detox, requires an enormous amount of energy that we want to reserve entirely for that purpose. It is however recommended that while fasting we do exercises that facilitate this process. These include walking, yoga, light swimming and breath work. As a yogini, I can attest to the very powerful detox benefits of yoga and breath work, not only physical but also spiritual and mental. 

The breath is the vehicle upon which our life force enters the body, so that when the breath is shallow, our thoughts and actions are shallow. When the breath is labored our thoughts and life are labored. More than anything, while fasting (and even on non-fasting days), I encourage you to notice the breath and breathe with intention. At every moment you can remember, drop in on the breath to see how it’s doing. Follow the inhale to a completely ballooned belly, brining in strength, health, energy, faith and peace. Exhale until the navel meets the spine, letting go of disease, fear, weakness, fatigue and tension. 

Attending to the breath will still agitating thoughts. When left unattended, these thoughts create agitation in the body, which often causes us to feel empty or “hungry” and so we attempt to fill that emptiness with food. Typically the types of food we choose when we are in this mindset are high in salt or sugar because these nutrients, when refined or in excess, act in the same way as drugs, changing the chemistry of the body, creating a diversion from feelings. Catch yourself breathing and you will be able to see more clearly the trajectory of your thinking. When we can see where our thoughts are headed it is easier to get in front of them and change their direction.

Yoga, on the other hand, twists and bends the body in order to allow for better circulation and flow of oxygen. It also wrings the organs and helps jumpstart sluggish glandular systems. The practice of yoga also incorporates breath, which stimulates the body’s ability to relax. A relaxed body is one that is more prepared to take on the task of cleansing and healing.

Be good to your body. Be Good to yourself. Breathe.

The critical need for study and intuition

Many American’s believe that products advertising themselves as “low-fat,” are healthier food selections than ones that do not. But despite the proliferation of low-fat offerings in grocery stores across the nation, Americans are increasingly fatter, sicker and experiencing significant decreases in Whole Life health.

Here is the problem in nutshell; America’s rich diet, heavily loaded with animal products, pre-packaged, over-processed and hyper sweetened foods, is so exorbitantly high in fat and empty calories that bringing the fat content down by ten, twenty or even thirty percent, still leaves us in the range of too much fat in the diet to achieve optimum health.

This misguided track also has the added psychological effect of allowing people to feel better about eating “low-fat” food, which inclines them to have a just a little more, a little more often. The result is a sum total of zero benefit to the millions who make the low-fat choice. This leaves us in the position we find ourselves in today, wondering how we could be abiding by all of the rules and still be sick and overweight.

A great example would be the doctor who tells a three-pack-a-day smoker, “I can help you live a longer, healthier life. Instead of smoking three packs a day, simply smoke one.” At this point in our history, with all that we know about smoking, we know that this advice is nothing more than a delay of game. In accepting this misguided prescription, the smoker is still in danger of developing serious and even life threatening diseases. She will continue experience declining energy and the ill effects of so much damage to her circulatory, lymphatic and nervous systems. The advice the doctor has given will pretty much ensure that her health never improves but in fact continues to decline until her habit finally kills her. Despite her doctor’s recommendation.

Rational Recommendations Vs. National Recommendations

If the lists below were food pyramids, the bottom levels being foods we should consume in greatest quantity, we can see the vast difference between what the Federal Government recommends compared to what is recommended by doctors and scientists who have studied the disastrous effects, including chronic disease and premature aging, of over feeding and rich, high fat diets.

Rational (Healthy) Recommendations:

No more than 4 times per month

Fats/Oils/Sweets/Meat

Eggs

Poultry/Fish

No more than 4 times per week

Low-Fat Dairy

1-2 servings daily or 5%-20% of daily calories

Beans, other legumes, nuts and seeds

2-4 Servings daily or 15%-30% of daily calories

Fruits

Whole grains, Brown rice, Bulgar, Quinoa

6-10 servings daily or 30%-60% of daily calories

Vegetables – ½ raw and ½ cooked including:

Lettuce, tomatoes, broccoli, string beans, sweet potatoes, carrots, squash and many more

National USDA Recommendations

Use sparingly

Fats, oils, sweets

2-3 Servings daily

Milk, Yogurt, Cheese

Meat, poultry, fish, dry beans, eggs, nuts

2-4 servings daily

Vegetables, fruits

6-11 servings daily

Breads, cereals, rice, pasta

Even if everything we see and hear about food choices confuses us, we can trust what we know to be true; more Americans need healthcare than have it, more drugs are being created now than ever in the history of the United States, more women are dying of heart disease and cancer than of any other causes and more children have diabetes, autoimmune diseases and nervous system maladies than is conceivable for a nation of our wealth and resources. If food is our fuel, then it stands to reason that our current approach to energy and wellness is woefully insufficient and even counter-productive.

It is critical that we study more closely the effects of what we take into our bodies and the impact it is having on every aspect of our lives; physical, mental and spiritual.

Pamela Serure writes in her book “The Three Day Energy Fast,” “The whole key to personal transformation starts on a cellular level. It’s about rejuvenation of your cells. When we clean out and rebuild our cells they give us new messages. New cells have new meaning. New cells have new stories to tell. New cells don’t follow the same old programming.”

If we are to refashion ourselves from the inside out, we must first begin with the cells. By fasting and minding what eat, we can allow for healing of old ills and a rebuilding which rests on a foundation that can create and sustain optimum health.

Gaining Peace Through the Food We Eat

While fasting is a practice we undertake in order to spring clean our bodies, spirits and minds, much of that hard fought work can unfortunately be undone if we are not mindful of what we take into the body on the days we are eating. Failing to be mindful of what we put into our bodies also makes the fast day more difficult as the body must begin again its attempts to rid the body of too much sugar, stimulants and waste associated with eating “dead”, processed or otherwise unhealthy food. This makes the period of withdrawal that many of us experience during the fast even more difficult to deal with.

According to Queen Afua, author of the book Sacred Woman: A Guide to Healing the Feminine Body, Mind and Spirit, there is another serious side affect to eating what she calls “a violent, toxic diet.”

She writes, “Food is our fuel. What and how we eat determines the effectiveness of our lives. There are natural food alternatives, so we don’t have to feel deprived. We can simply make better choices."

Here are some of the symptoms, according to Queen Afua, of eating a violent, toxic diet:

· Women verbally abusive to men
· Men physically abusive to women
· Stressed out parents unable to talk to children, using blows instead
· Gossiping
· Inability to let go of resentment, depression and worry
· Abusive, animalistic, or uncontrollable sexuality


In looking at my fasting/eating experience I can attest to a significant difference in my relationships and interactions with people. Since beginning fasting/mindful eating practice, it is easier to see how what I put into my body affects my thinking, feelings and behavior.

Here is a great Eden Kitchen recipe you can try. It’s inexpensive, easy to prepare and easy to take to work.

Garden Vegetable Soup

4 tablespoons olive oil
2 cups chopped leeks, white part only (from approximately 3 medium leeks)
2 tablespoons finely minced garlic
Kosher salt
2 cups carrots, peeled and chopped into rounds (approximately 2 medium)
2 cups peeled and diced potatoes
2 cups fresh green beans, broken or cut into 3/4-inch pieces
2 quarts chicken or vegetable broth
4 cups peeled, seeded, and chopped tomatoes
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup packed, chopped fresh parsley leaves
1 to 2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice


Heat the olive oil in large, heavy-bottomed stockpot over medium-low heat. Once hot, add the leeks, garlic, and a pinch of salt and sweat until they begin to soften, approximately 7 to 8 minutes. Add the carrots, potatoes, and green beans and continue to cook for 4 to 5 more minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add the stock, increase the heat to high, and bring to a simmer. Once simmering, add the tomatoes, corn kernels, and pepper. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and cook until the vegetables are fork tender, approximately 25 to 30 minutes. Remove from heat and add the parsley and lemon juice. Season, to taste, with kosher salt. Serve immediately.

*You can always substitute these vegetable for whatever is in your refrigerator. Enjoy!

Patience for the Journey

"May your heart know the patience
That can draw infinity from limitation"