Hello,
Moonwatcher, dear friend!
I have never read Dr Zhivago, though I'd like to. I recently discovered a whole new appreciation for Henry James (apropos of things never read) when reading Portrait of a Lady - it was far beyond me when I tried to get through it in High School - gave it another shot and whoa, was I blown away!
re: fasting for 12 hours. Is that overnight fasting you meant?
Fasting days 1 and 2For whatever reason, the first 24 hours of a fast is a total breeze for me (my overeating problems occur when I am ALREADY eating and do not want to stop, typically) and I have normal energy, etc all day long.
Day 2 I am usually pretty tired, and if not dizzy, physically very weak.
Ah well.
Is olc an ghaoth nach séideann do dhuine éigin. Fasting,Day 3Today is when the fun of the fast kicks in. Apparently, after 48 hours in women and 72 hours in men, the body goes from burning muscle for fuel to burning fat stores and a much lower percentage of muscle. This is when the "clearing out" can really amp up and for me, this is when I start to feel REALLY clear-headed. Not super energetic, but mentally doing gymnastics. S'fun!
MeditationThis fast, I decided I would meditate, no matter what. The first day I sat 20 minutes am and pm and had plenty of energy for sitting, physically, but not much mental focus.
But once you are really in Day 2 and onward of fasting, sitting up takes a lot of energy, so I was not sure what to do. I learned zen-style mediation in
seiza posture, which is really hard to do physically, while fasting.
So I looked around and found an acceptable alternative posture - lying down with knees bent and feet on floor. Pillow under head if necessary. I did that instead.
In my search for posture, I came across another tool for breath-attention than the one I have been using (counting the out breaths from 1-10, then starting over.)
This method involves counting the in breaths from 1-10, then counting the in breaths from 10-1 (or, 1-10 backwards,) then counting the OUT breaths from 1-10, then counting the out breaths from 10-1. And starting all over again. This really helped me concentrate a lot better, perhaps because I am so new to this and have a really active monkey-mind.
So I managed 30 minutes in one "sit" yesterday, and 15 minutes this morning. Plan to meditate again in the evening.
In my first official meditation class, the teacher mentioned that he led a group of prison inmates in mediation regularly and that the guys in prison were, as he put it, "rocks." I was impressed that someone in such a place, with so many unpleasant things surrounding them, and unpleasant things to come face-to-face with in their own lives, self and actions, could meditate.
Yesterday I found
this documentary, called The Dhamma Brothers, about prison inmates in Alabama meditating in
vipassana meditation. Worth a watch if you are interested. It is free on Netflix streaming and on Hulu.