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!
Doing a 7-day water fast - Selftalk Newsletter #17
|
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 better brain performance. Also, there is a long list of benefits coming from autophagy. What is autophagy?Autophagy serves as our body's cellular recycling system. It gets activated when cells are deprived of nutrients. They begin to consume their old or damaged components and destroy viruses and bacteria. In 2016, Yoshinori Ohsumi was awarded the Nobel Prize for discovering the mechanisms of autophagy. The word “autophagy” is a combination of two Greek words meaning “self-devouring”:
Autophagy is important as these "junk" components take up a lot of room in a cell and can prevent it from working properly. So, just by stopping eating for a few days, we can get our bodies on autophagy and benefit from:
See the research studies here! Testing it on myselfSo, after 2 years of researching it, I decided to test it on myself (in a specialised retreat). In the last 2 years, I did a few 3-day-water fasts at home. But it felt not enough. My friends who did prolonged fasting say that the first 3 days are the hardest, and the best part happens after DAY 3 (*I personally know 3 people that did 40 days of water fasting). So I will keep you updated in the next newsletter on how this experience ended for me and my mom. See you next week! 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...
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...
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...