Fasting Space

Today
we're going to be diving in a little bit.

Are we feeding our deepest needs?

We're here on a weight loss channel

trying to help people move toward
health, wellness, vitality.

Think a lot about things.

We feed, food we eat, things we consume.

Today.

Going to try to dive
just a little bit deeper.

Are we feeding our truest self,
that human spirit

that is somehow mysteriously
dwelling inside of us or around us?

Or who even knows how does it work?

But this is what I was trying to do
yesterday.

If you've been following along with me,
this was a

a rebound week for me

trying to overcome this illness
that I have been

dealing with little Lyme disease
and feeling a little better.

Last night
I got out, caught the last waning

moments of the sunset.

This is like Winger in Madison,
and sometimes I might walk here

from the house.

It's about a mile and a half
from my house.

Yesterday I drove most of the way,
but when we're talking about

feeding our spirit, feeding the soul,
getting into a place really

of contentment, man,
did it feel good to have the energy

to get out and witness

the sunset, the last moments of the day,
in the fresh air

and listening to the cranes and the birds
and felt really good.

I'm gonna share some deeper thoughts
on this type of thing

with you
from this beautiful book, Dear Artist.

Beautiful
to have you all with me today this week.

Man, what?

What a week.

How has it been for you?

I hope you are doing well, man.

Listen to these words from John.

Have you fed your soul yet? Today?

When was the last time
that you thought of that for me?

A little while.
It wasn't until I read this yesterday.

I've been.

I mean, I'm in a dietary space, you know,
I think about eating and not eating.

This is what I do.

I try to help people navigate this path.

I try to walk it myself.

Have we fed the physical body?

That's what I think.

But then this is challenging us here.

Let me just read through it
and then we'll think more deeply.

Have you fed your soul yet?

Today it cannot go too long between meals.

Feed yourself.

I do not mean that you must act in lonely

solitude
to nourish your craft and passion.

You can feed yourself from within
the bounty of your relations as well.

I am saying that you can always take
initiative to ensure

that you have what you need to be,
well, whole and thriving.

Gather your supplies. Resourceful.

They do not always need to come
from the same source.

Be creative and feeding your creativity.

Open your windows.

Step out into the streets.

Venture into the wilderness.

Taste new foods.

Grow your own garden.

Your hunger is not a bad thing.

It is a signaling thing.

It is telling you something.

Follow
the cook that you are into the kitchen.

I read this last night.

I was thinking about the day, the week

thinking about what
shall I talk about tomorrow?

Which direction shall I go?

I went a few different ways.

Nothing really resonated with me
most of the afternoon.

I read this line, I flipped.

This was book three. I tried three books.

I made it to this one said,
have you fed your soul yet today?

And you know what I thought, I don't know,
I don't maybe not, maybe not.

It cannot go too long between meals.

You can think how this resonated with me.

It did.

I was like, oh,
I like going away between meals.

I want to do it.

I've told you, I'm stuck
on this antibiotic regimen.

Not too much fasting, none for weeks.

Got to keep eating to balance out
the pills.

Only two more days after today.

But here we're talking about the soul.

The spirit.

This is about taking care of ourselves
emotionally.

Think about the session we did yesterday.

Slowing down, stepping out of the rush

as much as we can, when we can if we can.

Trying to find the moments
to do it, practicing to do it, setting

the intention of it, if nothing else,
recognizing the importance of it.

Why do that?

So that we can make space to do this.

Feed the deeper and truer self.

Practice just being for a little bit.

You know,
this is the type of thing you can do.

You catch the last fleeting
glimpses of the sun.

You see,
this isn't the most spectacular sunset,

you know, but it's just the sunset
that was you know what I mean?

It's the sunset
that was as it was captured on the iPhone.

I didn't grab the special camera,

just the reality of it, you know,
and it was just beautiful.

Had so much gratitude for it.

I'm just finding gratitude for it again.

Just to be able to get out of the house.

You know, it's been nearly a month
since I've had the energy to just,

you know, get out in the evening,
take a look at the sunset,

you know, find some gratitude.

Saul can't go too long between meals,
I think, man, I think it went too long.

That was, you know,
have you had a season like that?

You're dealing with an illness.
You're in a really low place.

Whatever it is, you're just in a season,
a discouragement.

You say,
have we gone too long between meals?

And what is the meal?

You know,
is it a sunset, a sunrise, a deep breath,

maybe some time in the journal,
maybe a few moments

just to be say whatever it is they say.

Feed yourself.

Feed yourself physical food.

Okay, I'm in a fasting space.

I say, maybe don't do that
for a little while.

Maybe it's the fasting space
that gives the space

to open up for this type of feeding.

You know what I mean? This type of eating.

I do not mean that
you must act in lonely solitude

to nourish your craft and passion.

Although I say it could be.

Oh, man, could be either one huge benefit
to both, right?

Huge benefit
to get out by a lake, by yourself.

Just you and the sun.

It was very interesting.

This.

This space where I'm at,
where I set my camera by a little tree.

On a road.

Actually,
the road goes right through here.

People coming by on the bikes
or walking by this place.

So many people, you know, I would say,
you know, I don't know how many people,

let's say ten people came by ten.

Nine of the ten people

stop and talk to me and just say, oh,
I should take a minute and watch this.

You know, I'm like,
I say, isn't it beautiful?

And one person crabbed at me.

You're not supposed to be standing here.

They said, My God,
they're whizzing by on their bike.

I was like, why don't you just stop
and watch the sunset for a second?

You know, take a deep breath.

You can feed yourself from within
the bounty of your relations as well.

Solitude are not a season for each.

I'm saying that you can always take
the initiative to assure

that you have what you need to be
well and whole and thriving.

Isn't this what we're really after?

Was it just yesterday
one of these talks this week?

Maybe it was Tuesday.

Remember that woman's list?

All the good things, the diets
and the exercise and the books

and the meditation as you list all these
good things, but all from a purpose,

external validation,
striving for everything that we lack,

not recognizing contentment
within ourselves.

Take the initiative.

Look at what we have
right here, right now, within ourselves.

Can we find wellness, wholeness, thriving

even without doing anything,

simply to be and watch the rays of the sun
shooting through the clouds?

We're made out of that same stuff.

Stardust blown across the universe.

Collected in this place,
powered by the sunlight I was.

I was watching something the other day.

They're saying the average photon
from the sun actually was emitted

from a nuclear decay,
like a million years ago.

But people don't get like,
the sun is solid.

It's just metal, but in a plasma state,
and it can't get out.

The photons are bouncing around
inside the sun,

maybe for a million years,
bouncing off all the atoms

until one day they hit
like an atomic crack and they escape.

Just amazing.

And they fly in every direction.

And some of them landing here
after a million years

to give us warmth and light
and help us grow our food and live

and give us vitamin D in every million
things that it does for us is sit here.

We watch a single ray of sun through
the clouds just to provide beauty for us.

Like you sit and watch a single sunset
and you just realize the absolute miracle.

That we are here in alive
and able to experience it.

Welcome. How are you today?

Hope you are doing well.

Doesn't it feel just rejuvenating when
they list these words to be, well, whole?

Thriving?

Doesn't it feel good just to think of this
whole process that we are a part

of this whole existence for why ever it is
they say, gather your supplies.

Resourceful.

They do not always need to come
from the same source.

Think of this balance between

eating and fasting, right?

Both can give nourishment.

This is what I want people to see.

Here's completely different sources.

Really incredible
sort of space to be in a season.

For each.

We need the most nourishing foods.

I was thinking the description
I gave in that session earlier the week

of this stir fry concoction
I made with lion's

mane, mushrooms and kale,
and freshly minced turmeric.

You know, every anti-inflammatory thing
felt so good and nourishing.

You know, we need these nutrients
that the earth is providing for us.

I say gather them like they're saying,
gather our resources, help

to support the body
so that we can do what they are saying.

Be thriving.

So I want this for myself and for you.

Then look at the fasting space
the other side of it.

Say we get fasting in every day, at least
overnight while we're sleeping, right?

It's like we get a bit and the body uses
that space, settle things down,

bring things back into balance,
hormones, balancing

calories, balancing energy,
bodies, balancing.

Where does it need to be and say
for a season for a period of time?

It doesn't have to be all that it is.

Sometimes we open up that space
and we can bring more things into balance

cholesterol, blood pressure, blood sugar,

stress
to say we burn it up in the metabolism,

our emotional metabolism
as much as our physical metabolism.

Be creative in
feeding your creativity with it.

That's what I say.

We are creating this health path together,
doing it right in this type of space.

Deep thinking, sharing our thoughts
and perspective, sharing and encouraging

word finding is much meaning

and beauty from the simple things
around us as possible.

Opening up space
right, slowing down, opening up space

so that we can see the inspiration
that is surrounding us in each moment.

That is creating a health path
for all of us.

They say, open the windows,
step out into the streets.

Even if the crabby woman on the bike
doesn't like it.

Venture out into the wilderness.

Taste new foods.

Grow your own garden.

I love each of these things.

Your hunger is not a bad thing.

It says, look at how they go after that.

Your hunger is not a bad thing.

Now, hunger, of course,
puts us into this fasting mindset.

What are we experiencing
in our relationship with food

and when are we eating
and what is that like here?

I think we're talking
about a deeper type of hunger.

He's he started with the soul.

Have we fed the soul?

And here we're flowing through this space
to say the hunger isn't a bad thing.

This is like what are the deepest.

Longings, yearnings?

What is the spirit craving?

Deeper just than the physical hunger,
physical hunger,

fasting space, though
giving us a mirror for this?

I think it's because fasting
so integrated into the body, right?

Everybody getting a fasting space
at least overnight for a period of time.

Body using that space as a core metabolic

reset every day a cycle in the body.

Eating, fasting, eating, fasting.

Right cycle.

Sometimes for space
we can extend that bring

the benefits
into our life in a deeper way.

Here is the pattern
that we can see for this emotional side.

We feeding the soul. Are we being.

It's like a rhythm
and then we gotta go about our day.

We've got to do all these other things.

But then are we having that cycle here
too, of returning

back to the baseline, centering ourselves?

Hunger is not a bad thing.

We can see that in the physical space,

hunger feared in society.

So you've got to do everything we can
to avoid it.

We sit in a fasting space
just for a little while,

start to recognize hunger
is something you can build a relationship

with slowly
and gradually and thoughtfully.

And then you come to see, you know what?

This thing
that I have feared for a long time,

but I've seen as very unpleasant,
like a formidable foe.

It's like, actually we can see
maybe it's not quite so bad.

Maybe it's not as intimidating
as we thought.

We start to see there's a little barrier
to entry here as we practice it.

Never push it further than we want,
always.

We can end it at any point.

So, you know this isn't a bad thing.

It's a signaling thing.

I love how he says this.

It's a signaling thing.

It's like he's giving us message
communication from the body.

All kinds of things
communicated in that space

about what our patterns are,
what the body is expecting,

where the energy is,
how trained is the body at using energy

signaling says here,
is this telling you something?

And body is always communicating with us.

Rarely in our society do we take the space
to listen and try to understand it.

And follow the cook
that you are into the kitchen.

Love that.

I feel like he's just wrote this book
for us.

In this space.

Follow
the cook that you are into the kitchen.

We can take that literally.

Head to the kitchen. Right?

Cook yourself
some beautiful, nourishing meal, you know.

But then look at, you know, this is some
type of beautiful poetry type of thing.

Look at how we, as it framed
the first and last line.

Have you fed your soul yet? Today?

Follow the cook
that you are into the kitchen, you know.

Beautiful, beautiful.

Follow
the cook that you are into the kitchen.

Maybe it's in a space like this.

Maybe it's inside somewhere,
just finding a quiet space

where you can reflect and listen and say,
all right, we've got the actual kitchen.

Maybe we say kitchen's closed, right?

Physical kitchen closed.

Now going to have some fasting space.

Going to open up this emotional kitchen.

Say we've got a hunger.

It's just something.

What are the needs that we need to meet.

Maybe it is processing some dark
and difficult

thing from the past
that has been burdening us down.

Maybe it is taking some space
just to show grace and kindness

and compassion to ourselves.

Now in a difficult season, start turning.

Perspectives
that we have external validation

into internal comfort
that we are developing.

Help us build that inner
emotional strength.

Pairing these two things strengthen
the body.

Fasting can help us to develop
a type of strength with that.

Relying on the internal energy within us.

Help us to power other types of strength
in the body so that we have energy

for our exercise
and moving the body in beautiful ways.

Everything that helps us to be strong
and thriving.

Everything feeding through in a cycle
as we are feeling

that strength in the body help
to renew our spirit.

Bring that strength into our emotional
being as well.

Maybe that space for you
is just this session today.

I hope it's at least part of it.

Dive in on some thoughtful thinking.

Maybe find like it was saying
in the passage, have some connection.

Good for feeding the spirit that way.

Also some solitude place.

Catch the last fleeting
rays of the sun when you get a chance.

It's been a beautiful week.

Just doing a little reflecting here
at the end,

looking or toward the end.

Feel free to share any thoughts
reflections questions you have.

As I'm looking over this week, Monday,
starting over

isn't easy, I would say not easy.

I thought that was a beautiful way
to start the week.

Monday. Tuesday.

Some thinking on radical acceptance
that that to me has really helped.

I'm sure. Come back to some of that.

Take one step forward on Tuesday.

Breaking things down.

Tiny goals.

Oh, I did make it out.

Tiny goal accomplished yesterday.

Took a walk to our little store
and bought some kombucha

to get some probiotics.

Okay, is a dual win deal
with the antibiotics. So.

And then Wednesday
the lotus flower really loved

that coming out of that space,
blooming most beautifully in the deepest

and thickest mud
that that's felt like the season for me.

Really thick mud to walk through.

Those all flowed together
nicely, I thought.

And then slowing down yesterday,
rushing through life, rushing through

meals, slowing things down,
finding some space even if it's tiny.

And then this has felt nice to me.

Capping off this week.

Feeding what really matters.

Has felt really good to listen

to those beautiful words from Jaya John.

Feeling like a space to me
to take a deep breath.

After that I,
you know, I was sitting there

last weekend, I didn't quite know.

I'm trying to be gentle with myself
as I'm bouncing back

in this season,

and I'm feeling really happy now
to have jumped back,

even though especially Monday, Tuesday,
that was about all

I could do to turn on the camera
and share some thoughts.

And now here today I am genuinely

feeling a bit better
and I think this was a good part of it.

To wake up the brain

a little bit and do some reading
and share some thinking.

I hope it was beneficial
and appreciated for your week.

Really appreciate the thoughts
that you all have shared.

I hope you have a beautiful weekend
and I will.

Oh hey.

Welcome.

Hey, so nice to catch you
here at the end.

Just joining Rough Patch,
getting back on track.

Hey, glad to see you.

I am feeling a tiny bit better every day.

Thank you and I hope you
also moving in a good direction.

I think I saw a comment

you're watching a replay
on one of these other sessions this week.

If you're having a rough patch.

Hey, some of these sessions really
designed as much as I can design them.

You know, the lotus flower
talking a lot about muddy patches.

And I hope some of this thinking
really helpful.

Catch the replay,
you know, on the beginning of this session

when it loads back up and listen
to these beautiful words from Jaya John

about really feeding
these deepest needs that we have.

Taking that process
help it to flow outward

into the rest of our life,
the rest of our being. So.

Awesome to have you all here.

I will keep this going longer,
but I have a little personal

medical appointment I got to get to,
so I'm going to leave it here.

This was a lovely session.

Have a great weekend!

Share ongoing thoughts in the comments
section.

I'll be back in an hour or so.

Love to have an ongoing conversation
about the thoughts we discussed here.

Any other thoughts on your mind?

And I will really look forward

to sharing some more thinking with you
next week.

Have a beautiful day everybody!