Fasting
by Laura Craig Mason © 2003

Almost all faiths have fasting as a part of their ritual or holiday schedule. Jewish law orders a yearly fast on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. Some Christians fast during the Lent. Muslims fast from dawn to sunset every day during Ramadan, the ninth month of their year. In Buddhism, fasting is recognized as one of the methods for practicing self-control, as the Buddha advised monks not to take solid food after noon. Hindus observe fasting on special occasions as a mark of respect to their personal gods or as a part of their penance. And as with all things in the realm of religious practice there are no hard or fast rules (nor a lot of text) for Pagan fasting.

Personally, I fruit fast* for 1 day (sunrise to sunset) before each of my 8, major holidays. More often that not I end up fasting at work, where I am bombarded with the smells of microwave popcorn and the awkward questions of, "Why aren’t you going to lunch with us?" What is hard, in this environment, is keeping in mind the context of the hunger. I could very easily sink into a ‘woe is me; I am so hungry’ mentality. While these thoughts are valid (and they keep the fasting individual connected to the starving individual) they are not the entire focus of fasting, and would be no different than the self pity I feel when I have skipped breakfast or am waiting for lunch on an average day. But I can’t really sit at my desk and meditate upon the cleansing of my body or my chakras just as I can’t feel sorry for myself. This is the paradox: how does the religious person stay religious at work?

Acts like fasting may root us to our spiritual practice but what happens when you question your focus and find that you never had a specific one? Is fasting just done to see how little a person can survive on? Is it done to cleanse the body? Or focus the spirit? I do find that fasting helps my stomach and my general body. As a vegetarian I do attempt to eat healthy but it is not as if I am immune to the lure of snack food. Fasting helps me realistically keep in mind portion control when I do eat again. Because I do only eat small portions of fruit on these days, I drink more water than I normally would. Recent diet/nutrition experts ask that you drink ½ of your bodyweight in ounces of water (i.e. if you weight 150 pounds you should drink 75 ounces of water) a day. I am nowhere near this goal, except on days that I fast. Lastly, how much does fasting focus the spirit? As much as Yoga, meditation, or painting, I find that fasting reminds me of my goals as a human. By abstaining from the simple pleasure of eating I focus inward on pleasures that perhaps go unnoticed. On days that I fast I am more likely to walk outside during lunch, really enjoy the rhythm of knitting, or write lots of nature based haikus. Fasting gets rid of 1 extraneous thing that takes up my day, giving my brain a chance to focus on other things.

How is the act of fasting affected by our work? As I mentioned earlier fasting during these hours can be awkward. I am typically shy about religious practices at work, just because I generally don’t talk to that many co-workers. Because they don’t know much about me outside of what I do for a living, there would be no context as to why I fast. If asked, I explain that I am fruit fasting, and if further pressed, I explain that it is for a holiday. While I don’t find that my job suffers from my fasting (I am more alert, actually) I often wonder if my fasting suffers from being at work. It is hard to contemplate the context of food in everyday life while making spreadsheets and calling customers. At the same time, I don’t know how much removal from ‘the real world’ is healthy (for me) as a religious person. At home, how different would my fasting be? Would staying in my apartment meditating or working on art, all day, help? I might be more relaxed fasting and meditating at home before holidays, but on any given day I’d be more relaxed at home. I think moving through the day to day world of jobs, traffic, and grocery shopping on fasting days is important for my perspective. My path in an internal one, while this body lives very much in the external world. It is fasting that bridges those two worlds.

* Fruit Fast = Because I suffer from frequent migraines I cannot skip meals as that is a known trigger. I simply eat very little food on fasting days and what I do eat must be within the fruit family. Generally, I survive on a cup of juice for breakfast, 3 pieces of fruit until I get home, then a salad at sundown.