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FROM RELIGIOUS PRACTICE TO SCIENTIFIC AFFIRMATION
Fasting: Beneficial to our Body and a Business Essential?
Why fasting is essential to our wellbeing, mental strength and a great first step down the road of success
When we think about the origins of fasting, most of us think of religions. It makes total sense as spirituality is an ancient path. I read the Bible, Koran, Bhagavad Gita, books on Budhism, shamanism…you name it. I am not sure if fasting was mentioned in all of them because my mind wasn’t attaching much importance to it back then. Nevertheless, it is practiced in many religions and philosophies.
However, I believe that the fasting tradition is way more ancient! That thought occurred to me after hearing what happened to my father’s dog. Yes, yes…I know what you are thinking.
His father’s dog!?
That poor thing ran straight into the field where my father kept 20 of his bee hives. Needless to say he ran back home even faster, chased by hundreds of bees! God knows how many times he got stung! My father thought there was no way he would survive that. He still kept bringing him food and water but, Medo never even moved. He just lay there for 2 weeks, not eating, barely drinking any water, just hibernating. And then one day, out of the blue, he just got up and started eating!
Wow! His body basically mobilised all available resources to fight off the poison, and it worked! — I thought. I remembered how we dealt with high fever when I was a child. Now you get a whole bunch of pills to fight the fever, but back then it was very different. In 99% of cases we would just rest, sleep and drink plenty of liquids…and let our body do the work. The very same thing Medo or any other animal instinctively do!
What does an octopus do when it loses an arm? It goes into a state of hibernation, directing all its resources into growing a new one! Even though we think eating is essential to increase our energy levels, a lot of energy (especially carnivore diet) actually goes into processing the food. Maybe that’s why we lose appetite when we get a fever? So yes, that is why I believe we humans have learned through overcoming sickness. We learned…
