Ten Days Fasting Retreat At Home

"Fasting blinds the body in order to open the eyes of your soul." - Rumi

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Day 1: Sunday 16.10.2022

For the next ten days, I am taking myself on a retreat without going anywhere – at least physically not going anywhere – and carrying on with the usual buzzing that my life has. When I started to practise, study and integrate yoga, meditation and its philosophy in my daily life, I did so with the intention to find a way to channel my energy and to keep calm and peaceful when confronted with challenging situations. As much as I love a nice retreat in a new environment, I was not looking to step out of my life and contemplate from afar – even though I think that way of doing things is very enriching as well –, I was looking to reflect on situations while they were unfolding and adapt my way of thinking, experiencing and behaving accordingly. It requires a lot of self-awareness, presence and patience (a lot of patience :D), but the journey is worth the effort.

9h49:

I haven't done a long fast in a while; it's been a challenge to integrate longer fasts in my day-to-day life, I have mostly kept to my one day a week fasts and three days monthly fasts. There have been a few 5 or 6 days fasts (attempting to do longer ones probably :D) here and there. I have been postponing this one for a few weeks now, but the time is finally here: I am committing to this. More than committing, I am ready to receive this gift. I am looking forward to see what comes up and shifts this time around.

20h33:

The day went by fast; I was pretty busy in the morning and I gave class in the afternoon so there weren't that much time to think about the fact that I am starting a longer fast. Also, because I usually eat my first meal of the day after 12h, there were no hunger pains. We'll see tomorrow. The first couple of days are usually the hardest to get through for me, the time for the body to adjust to not get any food.

Day 2: Monday 17.10.2022

12h53:

I slept so good last night. I had slept very few hours for the three nights before, my body was ready to surrender and rest. I woke up early and slow – my favourite way to wake up –, and that gave me the time to do my pranayama and meditation practice before and during the rising of the sun. I did a few things around the house; it just hit me yesterday that I am going away next week, I have some things to organise before leaving. I took care of some of them and practise The Rocket I. I enjoyed it, my body felt open and my mind joyful – a welcome contrast to how I was feeling just two days prior.

I had a couple of interesting epiphanies while moving in and out of poses (I guess epiphanies usually tend to be interesting :D)

I do not feel hungry, which is good. I am drinking some teas and infusions for the first few days, I am unsure if I will do two or three days like that. I like to break down longer fasts in sections of days, and essentially incorporate various styles of fasting within the time frame of a long fast. This is more or less what I have in mind this time around:

Day 1 & 2: teas and infusions only

Day 3 & 4: Dry fast

Day 5 & 6: psyllium husk and bentonite clay

Day 7 & 8: water only

Day 9 & 10: bone broth and/or juice fast