The Vikid Fast - Day 15 of 20
Hunger, Stillness and Ants
Introduction
For those of you new here, I have been on a water fast, supplemented by coconut water for the last 15 days. I consume about a litre of fresh or raw coconut water between the late afternoon to evening. I do light cardio & weights on most days. In addition to this, I meditate 2 or 3 times a day. This is The Vikid Fast Protocol so far, and once I am done. I will publish the details in a comprehensive organized manner that anyone could choose to follow or adapt for their own needs.
Hunger
Interestingly the fast is nothing like what I thought it would be.
For a start, I feel hunger today like I haven’t in 10 to 12 days. This was totally unexpected. For one, I thought the hunger would have come much earlier and secondly the last week has been mostly absent of it! Even then, the hunger I feel right now, is nothing out of the ordinary. Yes, there is hunger but it seems to be of low importance, a background activity. The fasting actually helps you deal with hunger in a new way, it empowers you.
The other surprising feature is the levels of energy, clarity of mind and general mood I exhibit. All parameters have improved. I actually have more energy, feel clearer and I am happier too. Go figure…
Unsurprisingly, I have lost a lot of weight. Probably close to 9 kg (20 lbs). My skin is clearer too.
Stillness
Meditation is a very important part of fasting or at least that is my claim. I really don’t think that I would see the same ease or benefits without it. I have been meditating daily once in the morning straight after I wake up, once at lunch, while everyone is eating and then finally once in the evening about an hour before bed. I will publish protocols and methods used after the fast is over.
Yesterday, I had a bright idea. I decided to try a hour long meditation with the idea of not moving, not even a millimetre. No shuffling to ease the posture, no scratching of itches and to even keep my breathing so shallow and slow that I would limit the heaving of the chest and stomach.
To do this is decided to choose the Shavasana pose because it would limit any pain in the knees and back.
Ants
So I lay down and used a blanket for warmth, all good so far, and unlike usual I put on an interview which was one hour long (click here). Meditation should preferably be done in silence so I am not sure why I did this, but it was coincidentally quite surreptitious.
The meditation started well but within 10 minutes I had various itches all over my face. The urge to move intense. Then what must have been 20 mins later I had 3 ants crawl on me, one near my hands, one between the elbow and biceps, the other on my left ear!
The revulsion and fear started to grow, the tickling unbearable. Just as I felt I couldn’t take it anymore the interview took an interesting direction talking about the many emotions that I was going through and importance of the mind/body connection.
I stayed resolute and didn’t flinch.
However, just as I thought I was beginning to calm down, I got very intense feelings of claustrophobia. I felt like I was wrapped in a clingfilm jail and weird sensations took over my entire body. I wanted to tremble, to do anything to move. I could feel that not a single muscle nor cell was truly relaxed. All I could think about was when this hell would end and when I could move again.
The ants never stopped exploring me either!
When the interview finally ended, it was such a sigh of relief and the second I moved, all these imaginations ended.
That has given me great insight. I realized that I haven’t truly been fully relaxed in a long time. No matter what I’ve tried, true deep relaxation is elusive. I was just not aware of it. That’s why, I believe, we need coffee as stimulants during the day and alcohol for relaxation in the evening. That’s why we need Netflix to hypnotize us, to distract us from life’s problems. That’s what Facebook and Twitter are about. We can’t relax. Even when we sleep, we carry that tension in our body and shuffle all night long.
So I am thinking true stillness meditation will have to become my main practice. I am going to need to address what is going on and with some luck find the “true relaxation” we all deserve.
I will report whatever I find…
That’s all folks,
The Vikid Truth