I am Elena - the founder and CEO of Selftalk and here I am writing about the practice and science of emotional agility! It's raw, it's personal and totally subjective!
10 learnings from a 8-day water fast - Selftalk Newsletter #18
|
We have done it! 204 hours of water fasting, 8.5 days! My mom and I just had our first meal. Well - not a real meal! It was one litre of water from boiled vegetables. Vegetables were not included, just the water! The next meal is tomorrow at lunchtime. But, I feel like it's done! My main learnings:First, I feel it's a bit early to put them into words. But I have a few points. More will come in some other newsletter or article. 1. I am shocked that I could do it.I had this belief that people die from hunger. My hunger was not as intense as I expected. Every day, I felt like, I haven't eaten only from yesterday. Crazy, no? Maybe because I had activities scheduled: walks, gym, work, massages, lectures, movies, trips. Also, I am in a hotel/retreat, together with 120 people - all fasting. Zero food around! Only 5 types of water! 2. I had lots of existential questions.Why do I exist? Why do I write? Why do I do what I do? And so on. I took time to find answers for these questions. And, I set my intentions for this fast. In the end, we are meaning-making machines. So, I embraced the uncertainty of the meanings I created for myself. 3. I felt alive while moving my body.As it started, I shortly observed how important it is to move my body. In the days that I have not moved enough - I felt like a vegetable. As soon as I went out for walks in nature & basic exercises - I came back to life. Moving my body was the best part of it. In some moments, I felt bliss while moving. 4. I started to pay attention to the level of fresh air in the room.I was opening the window very often. More often than I do at home. I needed OXYGEN. I needed to take deep breaths. Breathing exercises are on my list to test next. I felt different when I was breathing fresh air. I felt so alive. Present. 5. I lost interest in food.On Day 6, I wrote in my journal that my interest in food kind of disappeared. It felt like the food that I wanted - didn't exist. I didn't want anything. Even thinking about food was not exciting anymore. It was getting me tired. Very new and weird for a foodie like me 6. Talking to people became such a pleasure.From Monday (day 5) I worked as usual for my job. While on calls (20 of them), I felt focused and present. I enjoyed being present in the experience of other human beings. This was a new level of connection for me. A colleague even asked me if I was on drugs. 7. I experienced many moments of intense PRESENCE.This was the highlight of the fast. I felt like the past was far away - it almost didn't exist. I remembered it but only if I wanted to. My mind was HERE and NOW. I thought about the future but in a detached way. This was the main highlight of the fast. 8. I gain a deeper sense of self-respect.Food was a weak point for me. On deadlines, I struggled with emotional eating. I would not resist sweets during high-stress days. And this would disappoint me. Now, I know - I can work with food or without. 9. Our bodies are highly complex machines.There are so many thighs I don't know about it. I understood that my body held quite a bit of toxins. I thought I would do this fast and my gut health would be like new. That was a very simplistic thinking. I was wrong. I discovered:
My takeaway was to be more serious about my health. High performance and good well-being can go together. If we take care of details like bacteria in our body. 10. Fasting enabled such a deeper level of meditation and praying.I shocked myself. This experience planted a seed of curiosity in me about much deeper levels. I struggle to put this into words. But I was drawn to meditate and pray these last days. I just wanted to stay with myself. To just BE. Usually, I have a very active mind. But not this time. I loved just BEING. Meditating. Praying. And I felt these experiences deep in my heart. To sum it up, it was so special and quite hard! But totally worth it! All the best, Elena _____ |
Selftalk Newsletter
I am Elena - the founder and CEO of Selftalk and here I am writing about the practice and science of emotional agility! It's raw, it's personal and totally subjective!
Last week, I learned something about newsletters. They are not blogs. As I kind of made it be. Usually, newsletters contain at least 3 pieces of content (news, updates, curated content) - on different subjects. Like a summary of the week's main ideas! So, please bear with me, and my minimal viable newsletter. I am still figuring it out! Also, last week, there was no newsletter! Here is why: Being too tired to enjoy the moment I had a very busy week. And it made me think deeply about how...
This week's newsletter is arriving late. I am currently on a 7-day water fast retreat with my mom. Today is already DAY 3, and I am beginning to adapt. I wrote a newsletter on Day 1, and it was a mess, so I decided to wait. The first 2 days were mentally challenging. I didn't feel too hungry, but my mind was worried - preoccupied with surviving. Food is one of our basic needs to survive. And the first job of the mind is to take care of survival. Why am I doing this? For my gut health and...
Last week, three things triggered me really bad, so this newsletter will be about triggers. Why? Triggers affect our mood and it can take days to restore it. So, what’s a trigger? A trigger is a tiny device that activates the gun's firing mechanism, allowing the release of ammunition. For a trigger to work - there should be ammunition in the gun. Otherwise, nothing happens. It’s the same with emotional triggers Yes, we are emotionally triggered only if we hold some sort of ammunition. This...