Fasting Space

Take a moment center ourself here in this day,

Nothing rushed, nothing forced.

That's a fasting space.

Right here in this moment.

Let's not rush beyond it.

To realize.

The importance of it.

We don't lose weight in the past.

We can't go back right?

If we're on a health journey, if we are trying to move

in a new direction, can't do it in the past.

And if we are on a journey,
we can't do it in the future either.

The only place that we can accomplish what we want

is right now, in the present moment.

This is the space where we can change.

This is the space where we grow.

This is the space where we can learn on a deep level.

What does it mean?

To love the body, to love myself
more deeply, to take that perspective

and radiated outwards, to take the energy
that is with inside of me.

Let it flow outward.

What is the energy that is within us
if we're trying to lose weight, right?

We say there's extra energy in here,
there's blood sugar that we want to come down,

there's body fat that we want to see released.

Say we see the waistline shrinking.

Okay, but how does that happen?

The energy that was there stored by
the body is waiting for a space to release.

It is what fasting space is.

Body says plenty of food right now.

Save this stuff for later when we really need it.

Don't you just love this idea that that energy that comes

pouring out, that it's love and light out into the world

to me, fasting space, getting into a deep philosophical

emotional space right in the center of our being

because it's in the center of the body,
it's in the center of our mind and spirit also.

So we can be overwhelmed by the world.

We can be overwhelmed by news as they shut it off,

to the extent that it is not helping us.

Can be overwhelmed by relationships
and so many things that are happening.

Okay. Difficulty of life.

Take the energy that we have within us.

Open up the space.

Take all of that that is stored.

Turn it into as much goodness,
positivity, love and light that we can.

All right.

The love that I am talking about, especially the type of love

that is deeply caring for people,
that is willing to struggle, except difficulty

out of a caring and compassionate space.

Never say that fasting is easy space,
or at least I don't lead with it.

I say the goal is to make it as easy as possible.

Try to create every beautiful, simple analogy

that we can a sailboat, a river floating through space.

We've done our space stations floating toward it to minimize

every sort of struggle,
but then at the same time, recognizing that life is struggle

and so much of everything that is valuable in
life is on the other side of some type of barrier.

And so we are moving in a space today
that is trying with our eyes

wide open,
not pretending that things have we'd have no magic wands.

That's what I wanted in medicine.

So much a magic wand, it doesn't exist.

The closest thing to a magic wand in medicine
and life is the human mind.

And the human spirit, as far as I can see, is our ability

to very thoughtfully ground ourselves in the present moment,

use every mental capability that we have to envision a future
that is different than the present,

and then to manifest it to the greatest extent
in the present reality.

And this is what I want a fasting space to be, a place

that's grounded in reality, that is completely present

with the difficulty that we have of moving forward
and through a loving,

positive and kind way, doing the hard work that it takes

to move us in the direction that we envision.

One of the biggest barriers, one of the most insidious ways

that this is blocked in our path

by extrapolating our current circumstances into the future,

and we end up constructing the future in our mind,

and we see that it's so much like the present.

And then we see it's like it's already happened.

It creates a self-fulfilling prophecy that isn't good.

And we say a self-fulfilling
prophecy can be good or bad, right?

And of course, we want positive
self-fulfilling prophecies, right?

We want the very best. Do you?

Have you ever had a self-fulfilling prophecy

where it's like you thought something
and it just like then it came to be.

But you were like,
I think I did this to myself, you know, like, all right,

listen to what Brianna Waste says

about how this develops

in her section called extrapolation.

Extrapolation is when we take our current circumstances

and project them out into the future, makes us think

that we are the sum of our past or current experiences.

Like we can just stop right there, right?

Like, can you see that
we aren't that we aren't defined by our past?

That whatever stressors or anxieties
we are currently experiencing

are ones that we will grapple with for the rest of our lives.

Do you ever feel that way?

Maybe the present moment, what we're experiencing

with is so heavy, you say.

It feels like it could never leave.

When we're unable to see through the problem at hand,

we assume it will never resolve itself.

Unfortunately, this can become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

If we are easily defeated,

an exhausted by the idea
that we will never get over our problem,

then we make it more likely that we will hang on to it

instead of logically trying to resolve it.

And we can do this for a lot more time than is necessary.

I really thought that was an interesting space to think about.

I think this is very, very common.

I was doing some thinking the other day in a session

that was on restarting fasting that we talk a lot about.

Oh, isn't fasting exciting? Isn't it? Aren't they?

So many interesting sciency things about it. Okay.

And then we go on a groove with it.

But then life happens and we stop and then we have to restart.

And for many people, a restart is actually more difficult

than starting the first time,
because the first time there was nothing to compare it to.

But then the second time
we compared it to that peak experience,

like right when it was its very best,
because that's how our memory works.

Remember how something ended and the best part of it,

and maybe we ended right at the best part,
and then we've got a double comparison, right?

Remember, comparison is the thief of our joy.

So all of a sudden when we're trying to restart in a space,

we have to compare ourselves to our peak

previous performance
and we don't feel is good going through that whole phase,

ramping it up as when we did,
when we didn't have anything to compare it to.

That's such an amazing analogy for our life, anyway, about why

we shouldn't compare ourselves really to anything we say.

If we're ever going to compare ourselves to anything,
we should just compare our current version of ourself

to our past version of ourself, not to someone else
and someone else's life.

We don't understand.

But here we're seeing even that is fraught with difficulty
and we can lead to discouragement.

And so here we are seeing another example.

We're comparison here. Here it's isn't this interesting.

It's the mirror image.

Like when we are restarting a process, we're
comparing ourselves to our past.

And we're seeing that. That's making it very difficult here.

What we're getting in self-fulfilling prophecy
where we've extrapolated

our current circumstances into the future,
and then we're comparing ourselves against the future.

And this is also bringing difficulty upon ourselves,
where that comparison is making us feel like

we can never get out of it, because we've always already
seen the future, and it's no different than the present.

This is why we have to bring things back
right here into this moment.

No comparison.

We're getting out of cycles of the past, and we're breaking out

of future cycles
that we're already trying to create for ourselves in our mind.

And right here, in this moment, everything is actually okay.

When the only thing that exists is right here and right now,

and we can offload past and future.

All of a sudden we can take a deep breath.

All of a sudden there's not very much that has to be done.

This is the type of thing
that can take the pressure off of ourselves.

What is here in this present moment?

The physiology of the body is happening.

The energy that is within us is being mobilized
and used by the body.

The body knows.

Where the energy is in the body.

Just think about that.

How does it do it? How?

How does it know?

But it does.

And when we give the body a gift, say, in this present moment,

like my best choice,
I'm saying energy is not flowing into the system now.

Not eating. Let the digestive system shut down.

If you're with me here in the morning,
you say, haven't eaten anything yet.

Okay, if your space, maybe that's tomorrow.

You can see. Hey, tomorrow I'm getting up.

I'm not eating anything.

Maybe having a coffee or a tea.

Keep it calorie free.

No artificial chemicals or sweeteners if possible.

Right? It's an aspirational goal.

Maybe no pressure.

But you say water is here, right?

Hydrating the body. No calories.

But my human heart is beating inside of me.

And this is using energy.

Diaphragm is contracting and expanding.

The air is coming in and out.

That breath that we're breathing in some peace and contentment,

absorbing every bit of stress that we have.

Let it flow out with the breath.

See, as soon as I start doing that,
I start trying to stretch out

the shoulders a little bit,
try to get the tension out of the neck.

You know, it's starting to bring us into the body a bit.

So much of our life they were stuck up in our own head.

This is how we get stuck in these cycles of past and future.

Body exists in the present moment.

I did the meditation the other week, a presence meditation.

Getting out of the head a bit and into the body, seeing
what does the body need?

What kind of movement does the body need?

What kind of space does it need?

Think of what?

What are the muscles of the body need right that we can store?

Do you store tension in the body?

Do you store tension in certain muscles?

I know for me it's like neck and shoulders.

Big time. I go like this, I end up crunched up.

One part of the body, one part of our being,
showing us a mirror for the other parts.

Trying to get really comfortable in this space, you know,
how does the body need to move?

What?

You know, sometimes you do something like stretch out

the arm a little bit, helps unlock the back.

Get the back.

Opening up helps us open up across the chest

and just realize all this stuff is connected.

So if our body,
if we can see, we move through space in the body,

creating space in the bodies,
helping to bring down tension everywhere.

And then we we think about the connection, mind and body.

Creating space in the body, creating space in the mind.

Do you feel that way as you start to do some of these basic,
simple things?

Tension is released in the body is starting to bring the mind
into this present moment.

I know for me, as I've been just doing it here

together with you, I'm thinking less about the future.

I'm thinking less about even what what we're doing.

We're just being in this moment.

Calm and centered.

This is a type of space that we want to bring into our day
recognizing, okay, the whole time

we've been doing this, the whole time we're sitting here,
the body is carrying on, the body's got this.

Everything is okay in this moment.

Start to feel the energy is here within me.

It might not always feel that way.

Have you been stuck in a space
you feel like, oh, the energy is low.

Oh, I am tired.

Okay, I want to help you break out of that. Right.

We want to find the energy that is within ourselves.

Like we are saying,
the body knows where energy is within the body.

And if we are feeling in a space that is stuck in low energy,

let's lean into that space.

Make sure that we're caring for ourselves across every domain,

just like the motions of the body
through space flow in to the mind.

Okay?

Every part of our being,

our decisions, flows into the rest of our life.

I love the session from last fall.

Everything matters. It does.

How are you sleeping?

You know how your sleeping can affect how you're fasting?

Absolutely.

Like if we are not getting the rest
that we need to support the body.

Okay.

There is a very positive or negative cycle.

Like we said, good or bad.

We want to take our experiences
where maybe we've been creating a self-fulfilling prophecy

that is not serving us, that is keeping us locked in a space.

Want to find the ways to flip all these things?

We want good self-fulfilling prophecies.

If we are to be sitting here in this moment,
if there is a value

in looking to the future in any way, it's to create the biggest

and best vision of ourselves and our health and life

that we possibly can, so that we would flow toward

that, grounding ourselves in the present moment,

being here in this moment,

then channeling every thought in the most positive
way possible.

That's what I call yourself a filling prophecy.

That's what we want.

Not one that just floated in there.

That was influenced by culture and stress

and but the one that you want.

Nobody tell you what that could or should be.

Get that good sleep cycle going.

How is your nutrition going. Right.

Here's like doing a big self inventory.

Are you giving your body
the most nutritious food, the nutrients that it needs?

You know, are you keeping out toxic stuff and junk
that is putting a burden on the body?

Right. These are the types of things really to ask.

If you're in a space, you say, I'm not feeling this energy,
but you know it's there.

You know it is.

There have to unlock it.

You moving the body in a healthy way,
letting those muscles expand.

Contract experience resistance.

If you use that muscle, you lift something heavy.

It's like the muscle is calling out.

It's sending signals into the body. Hey, we need this energy.

Like release it. Give it to me.

Body will do it.

So all of these things across our being.

Are you giving space to the mind?

Meditation space, a journaling space.

Let the thoughts out.

Maybe this is the type of thing really to write in this day.

If you're feeling in a space,
you're feeling stuck or low energy to write that out.

Seeing it written out, man, my energy I am dragging today.

Get that thought out.

Now we're in a space and then let's sit with it for a bit.

Start to feel it really in the body.

I think a lot of times we're trying to run away from problems
that we have or experiences.

In my experience, when we have something
that is a real barrier, we really want to lean into it.

Here's a space right now.

Whatever you're struggling with, wherever,
wherever you're feeling, if you're not struggling today.

Hey, here's a space to just sink in and sit
with some joyfulness with it

and thankfulness for it.

Recharge it up, right?

Have you noticed this is the pattern, right?

Life comes in these waves, right?

And we tend to think life is linear.

We're having a great day.

It's going to get better and better.

We're at the bottom of a cycle.

It's like we don't see that it is going to turn around.

But life tends to flow like this.

And I say trying to shoot for that middle
path on the high days.

Just try to soak those up, try to send some of that down

into the lower points, try to bring ourselves into balance.

Big key
to health, big key to contentment in life, finding balance

and also looking for it right within ourselves.

I feel like here we've got our finger on a huge part of it,

trying to clear everything else out, looking to the energy
that is within the body.

Giving space for it.

How much space does it take?

It's a personal journey, right?

You can create some broad strokes.

We can say it's probably more than 12 hours.

You know, 12 hours.

It just kind of for most people completing the cycle,
there are factors that affect this.

How much exercise is someone getting?

How clean is the eating will affect
how long it takes for this cycle to go.

But, you know, heading out to 16 hours for most people,
starting to really dip the toe in the water,

you know, starting to wade into the shallow

end of the pools,
they were going to start to open up some space here.

Just say this whole thing is like a dial, and we can dial

in just the amount that we can either tolerate
or that we feel called to

when we start to feel that energy release.

You can turn that dial quite away, as the human body is capable

of turning that dial staggeringly long ways.

But there's no pressure ever to do it.

Fasting is a practice.

This is what it is like, you know? Right here.

In a moment.

Fasting is a moment of our life.

If we're fasting in our day,
we see this as a moment in our life. And.

I was talking with someone the other day, see what you know,

a lot of videos to say this,
like fasting is you watch a lot of videos.

I was looking at videos on YouTube

this weekend, fasting videos,

watching different doctors, millions of views,
millions of people watching.

And it was an interesting reflection,
you know, for me personally.

I was thinking about the conversation
I was having with someone there

saying most videos online about fasting

is like is like fasting on Monday.

You know, it's like fasting starting out, but like,
where are the videos about fasting on Wednesday, you know?

Meaning it's like for a process to really benefit

us, for us to self fulfill the potential of it.

We don't just do this on one day like we did it on Monday.

But then look, we got Tuesday,
we got Wednesday, you know, now I'm in Walmart

and like the big jar of cookies is right there
and I want to buy it, you know.

And. To me that's what this is I hope it's what it is.

Let me know if you feel that it is the case
because we're taking things out.

I did the video last week that I loved.

Science and autophagy
try to give you my best perspective of it.

Mix it with the goats and the natural cycle.

See, I love that trying to draw from every natural resource

that we have, start to integrate

and see that we are connected in these natural cycles.

To me, these are the types of things
that takes fasting from Monday through Wednesday.

You know that it can help us power us through a week
so that we can start flowing through it.

That when we ground ourselves here in this moment,

that we take ourselves out of any pressure
or expectation that we put on ourselves.

Start to build a little force field, our own personal bubble,
where we're saying, I'm

getting really good with myself

taking this amount of time, see,
I'm going to take 20, 30 minutes

at the beginning of a day, really get myself in a space.

Have you ever had it all?

It's like you're in a flow with something.

You say, I lost some weight here, fasting, working for me,

and then something switches, right?

Just like this, we are saying, here's life.

It goes in cycles like this.

We. A fasting cycle could be like this a man, I rode a wave.

And then what happens in this moment?

Flipped us back around and people can start cycling like that.

How do you break out of a cycle like that?

Maybe that's what this space is for.

You see, I'm going to make sure each day let's center
our intention, right?

Because here's a line that you can straighten out.

Right? You can.

I have seen people stick with a fasting process
that's working them

for over a decade,
you know, since I've started working on it with people.

But how do you do it?

Maybe every day you need a little check in.

Hey, where am I at on the cycle?

Is today going to be the day that I flip
and turn this around and start self-destructing again?

So that does not sound very good.

That wouldn't be my best choice.

How am I going to insulate and protect myself in this way,
so that that doesn't happen

when we start to see that actually our mental state is fragile?

Do you feel that way?

It can be fragile, or maybe a nicer way to say

it is delicate, that the actual balance point

between these things, like we're walking on a balance

beam, just someone one finger come in and push,

say, oh, can knock off, say,
I need to be very, very thoughtful here.

I want a fasting space for people to be so thoughtful.

This is what I think about it.

This is what to me, most of the videos that are out
there are not really like, let's say we want to be thinking

very, very deeply about our life,
about our relationship with food is very, very important.

And if we want to create a process that is sustainable,

that is going to serve us across a lifetime of health.

So we really want to dial in a space
what I would call a daily practice.

What are the daily practices that we go through that

helps and supports us in the middle of the difficulty of life

and say when things are coming, trying to push us off our path,

that we have put in the time in the work

that it takes to strengthen the mindset, to say, hey,

my mindset is not so delicate or fragile now
because I've put in the time,

really done the deep work to understand the things in the past
that are pushing me off.

Maybe it's not clear, right?

You see, I don't know what happens on this day.

All right. So maybe we don't.

But then what if we could never figure it out?

Okay, what would be the processes that we could put in place

to actually guard against it anyway?

I'm sure it would be something like this.

Big time space to open up thoughtful space.

Ask the body for help, right? Body wants to be healthy.

Body wants to release everything that doesn't serve it.

Maybe we can ask the body for help.

Maybe we can lean into it.

That's what we're doing here with this sort of space.

Lean into the body.

Body knows where the energy is. This is what I have to say.

It is so incredible.

I just sit here and think about it.

We have energy we want to use to power our life.

Body has energy.

It wants to supply. Do you see that? This is a relationship?

And I think that, you know, relationships
require communication.

They require honest and open dialog.

What does it look like to have an honest, open

dialog with the body to resolve a conflict?

Have you felt like you're in conflict with your own body?

Right?

Is that what it feels like when the energy is low?

It's like I want it. And how do we get it out?

Fasting space is open space for dialog with the body.

Think of it this way. You're sitting in a space.

I'm trying to lose weight.

I'm trying to release the energy.

But it's feeling difficult.

I'm feeling stuck now.

I get into a space.

Now the emotions are here.

And now I'm feeling hungry.

Like this is bringing everything together.

This is the experience of what it's like to communicate

with a body, to say, hey, actually, like,
what are the things that are really important?

What does the body need?
What is the direction that I want to go?

How do we overcome difficult emotions?

Do you see that everything is coming together in this moment?

Take everything that we've talked through in this session
to take a breath, open up space,

bring thoughtful comfort and compassion into the body
and into that space to say,

actually, it's possible in that moment,
the peak stress, every emotional space.

We can breathe through it.

We can see that everything is okay.

You can flow through a hunger space,

the real power in a fasting space unlocked
when we start to gain

control over the emotions, gain control over the thoughts.

This is what it feels like
to release the energy and power in the body.

And the more we practice
that, we're finding that edge, that line.

This is really the power edge of the practice
is to open up that space.

And it doesn't necessarily happen all at once.

But that process
think of like a flower blooming right, a flower,

it starts opening and then one day it hits the point,
you know where today is.

The day fully blooms, right?

This is what I want for your energy, for your process,

that we create a process and environments like.

I like the analogy of the garden.

You say this is a flower garden today, right?

We have nurtured the soil.

We're providing the nutrients.

Enough water. See, this is everything that we need.

Opening up the space with clearing out the weeds,
everything that is not serving us

so that the flower can develop and one day bloom and grow.

This is the process that I say in a fasting process.

How do we take energy that is within us, channel

it out into the world
and the most beautiful way, like a flower blooming?

Maybe this day is not the day

we say I'm not feeling it in this beautiful expression,

but maybe say this was part of the stem growing today.

This is part of doing the hard work and building the practice
like we did in Atomic Habits, that these things

compound over time, and that the day that we hit
our goal is just one point on that curve.

And then we're going to head on if we're going to have a vision
of the future that is positive, right?

That is a self-fulfilling prophecy that we want.

Let's make it a vision like that, that I'm going to sit here
and be doing the hard work in the most thoughtful

and gentle way, building our hope for

what is that expression going to be like every day,
doing our best to see it.

Maybe today is this day that it really clicks
and it really is blooming a.

I love that, I love that,
let's make that our self-fulfilling prophecy for the day.

Working on nourishing our flower garden and trying to send

as much beautiful, positive energy
out into the world as we can.

Channel everything within us
in our being out into love and light.

Love it really wonderful to share this space with you.

I'll be back with you tomorrow morning
and continue the conversation.

I'd love to hear your thoughts,
both the wins and the struggles.

That's what I want.

Want to celebrate victories,

steps forward in health,
and I want this to be a problem solving space for you.

Where is the struggle?

We do as much deep thinking on it as we possibly can.

Be. Well, in this day. We'll talk to you again soon.