Tuesday, June 4, 2019

fasting & feeling alive through Ramadan

I have just concluded fasting for 27 days in a row. The longest consecutive amount of time I have accomplished. I fasted from sunrise to sunset. Abstaining from consuming water, food, and negative talk towards myself and others.

It is part of my faith. It isn’t some weight loss fad that has become trendy through intermittent fasting. The holy month allows us to remove the distractions from our every day to be fully with our self to feel gratitude for the life we have.
Each Ramadan provides new lessons, clarity and gratitude in ways you never expect. It brings you closer to yourself and to love. Your mind is able to be cleansed as you quit bad habits and change your rituals. You feel lighter, more at peace and fully present.

Feeling the moments of each day as they unfold can be intimidating at first because you have nothing to fill yourself with or distract. We are only given a certain amount of energy each day. We get to decide what we do with it, where we will allow our energy to flow and how to use the power we have.
Not being in your homeland during such a holy month of connection and deep-rooted love is more difficult. You are not able to hear the prayers echoing through the village. You don’t see the fast in everyone’s body, manners, and energy. You don’t have an entire country around you to relate to what you are feeling and going through.

It becomes far more powerful of a connection with you and your higher self, when you don’t have the support of your country participating. Instead it’s time for you to thank God for the vessel you have to thrive in this world.
You feel more love through you, giving more compassion to others and yourself. Being able to recognize how your body and mind feel without food and water for 20 hours as you go through your day. You feel more gratitude for what you have been blessed with and can understand deeper for others with less.
You have to closely feel into your body to understand what it needs, and learn that it can do SO much with the energy you have. It doesn’t require much but we have been convinced that it needs everything before it can be satisfied or run properly.
Cravings and desires don’t last. They may feel strong as the long day starts. They feel like a strong pull persuading you of how badly you need it. But as the hours press on, your energy levels can only be given to things you truly care to think about. The pull to the distractions lessens.
I taught 3 yoga classes each week, I continued training with my boxing coach and going for walks in the park. I didn’t limit my movement rituals for I know my body can improve as I realize the power of my mind more.
Your awareness intensifies
Self-control strengthens as you resist actions.
You decide where you want your energy to go to.
Flexing spiritual muscles as our faith grows stronger.
Through love, gratitude, prayer, breath and existence; we strengthen our faith muscle connecting to the universe. While restricting food and behavior through fasting, we are able to restructure our patterns and limit worldly desires to reinforce our ability to progress.

Instead of trying to fill, to rush, to push passed here; I am able to gather the richness and the inspiration of this existence.
As I soften into my humanness with less mental distractions I realize I am my own loving guidance. Feeling unconditional love and forgiveness at my center. Taking the magnitude of each day with more intention to feel the fullness of all that we have. 

Our existence needs to be fully felt.
Feel your body. Hear only what it needs to be a loving energy source.
Thanking the universe, God, a higher source for all that is this life.
Aware of your body in space.
Aware of love emanating from your soul.