Body Talk

This is Day 11 of a healing fast; it is over four years since I last did one. It has taken that time to summon up the required discipline, except that none has been needed because my body, mind and spirit seem to be in alignment with what needs to be done to complete a healing process.

My very first 20+ day fasts in 2008 and 2009 was water and herb tea only, real hard core. At the time this was the requirement to begin the process of divesting my body of what was causing it distress – an over heated system (a high degree of trapped C02) causing my blood to literally boil, and threatening to rapture my heart and fry my brain. Four allopathic drugs daily, including a beta-blocker was not going to help, in fact it would simply accentuate the condition, and stave off death for a time. No, I did not want any short-term measures. I wanted to hang around this planet for a bit longer. I needed to go hard core and radical.

I first got an inkling of what was going on in my body in 2006 while on, what was up to then, an annual 10-day meditation retreat. The 10-day event consists of total silence and anything from two to four hour ‘sitting’ sessions throughout the day from 0400 to about 2030. Breakfast is taken at 0630 and the last meal for the day is at 1130. 

It induces a profound (even magical) connectedness between body-mind and spirit. As far as possible I try to recreate that setting during a healing fast, while remaining aware that I am not in an exclusion zone in the depth of Herefordshire, and have to carry on with daily life. Nevertheless I exclude as much external noise and distraction as far as possible, generating the quality of silence required so I can 'hear' my body communicating its needs.

So far I have had no real craving to eat and none for chocolate, which is normally my downfall. Instead, on day 8 I introduced a litre of natural carrot juice, produced by my own juicer. Yesterday, day 10, I introduced my first and only meal for the day: a small bowl of very finely chopped raw spinach, cucumber and avocado because that is what the body says it wants.
The 'Almost Complete' Food

When I checked it out with the nutritionist it turns out that carrots and spinach are very rich in beta carotene, a powerful antioxidant that boosts the immune system and soaks up the pollutant known as free radicals which damage cells and start cancerous changes. Avocados are highly nutritious and is said to be an almost complete food. All three vegetables are good sources of potassium, an electrolyte (an element) essential for the body's growth and maintenance.

As my kinesiologist would say: ‘thank you body’. I’ll await your further instructions.

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