Fasting

[00:00:00] You are listening to the Daily Five, an experimental podcast by Aurooba, where I talk about something for five minutes. So let's get to it, shall we? As I'm recording this, and if you're listening to this episode on the day it's released, it is day three of Ramadan: the month of fasting in the Islamic lunar calendar that dictates the bigger picture rhythms of a practicing Muslim's life.

[00:00:32] E very year, without a doubt, I have a few conversations about fasting with my non-Muslim friends. We have a meme about it called #NotEvenWater. Fasting in other spiritual traditions, and even in the health world often is about abstaining from food or abstaining from certain types of food. Some people even fast for multiple days.

[00:00:52] But the difference is they consume liquids to sustain themselves during that time. Fasting and Ramadan is a little different. We fast from daybreak, not sunrise, daybreak and fast all the way till sunset. And during that period we consume nothing. We do not eat and we do not drink. And when we tell people this, people will often say word for word, "wait, not even water?" Which is where that meme comes from.

[00:01:20] I have been fasting since I was 11. When I was young, my parents taught me how to fast in shifts. I would wake up for breakfast at dawn with them and begin my fast. Then I would break my fast around noon for a light lunch, and then I'd fast again until sunset. It was fasting with training wheels.

[00:01:39] Fasting is definitely a rite of adulthood in the Muslim world, and the first time you complete your very first full fast is celebrated. Your parents and your community will cook up a huge feast with all of your favorite foods, and all your friends and family will be there for iftar, which is the term for the sunset meal when we break our fast.

[00:02:00] Ramadan is a time of community spiritual realignment, and often serves as a life reset. When we're fasting, we also try to abstain from bad habits, from anger, from giving into desires we know aren't good for us. It's a practice in boundaries and self-discipline. Ramadan is one of my favorite times of the year.

[00:02:20] Fasting is one of those things that seems pretty crazy, but after a few days as your body adjusts, you find yourself in a very interesting place. When you're mind and body, you're not occupied with thinking about food, planning for food, or even digesting food, you suddenly find yourself with a lot more space in your life, more mentally and also time-wise, there's a kind of.. peace or zen that you more quickly slip into every day because of this.

[00:02:50] And it also makes you realize how much time you spend in a given day thinking about planning or consuming food and drink. Take that away, and you often find yourself with an extra, mm, three to four hours in a day, which is quite significant, really. Every Ramadan is different, but when you are doing this very discipline thing of not eating or drinking, that momentum of discipline often carries into other parts of your life.

[00:03:19] I am a happier and more thoughtful person in Ramadan. I often find it far easier to let go of hard feelings or ange I might feek. And focus more on the matters at hand, or at least I can let go of them enough so that I don't express them quite as much, there's a lot more to Ramadan than just abstaining from food and water, and its impact tends to reverberate throughout the rest of the year.

[00:03:45] By the time Ramadan comes the next year, you're generally itching for that reset because you recognize you've fallen into that next set of craziness or habits that you don't actually like. And the nice thing is it gives you a community wide time to reset and focus. You're not the only one trying to be better and maybe turn over a fresh leaf for at least a more improved leaf.

[00:04:14] When I am fasting, I can often take a step back from whatever I'm thinking and feeling and really look at it more objectively and not find myself – as often – falling into, you know, crazy, intense moments. So the schedule of this podcast might change a little bit while I'm fasting, but um, yeah, we're gonna talk about this a little bit more as we go through this month.

[00:04:45] Thanks for listening. Talk to you tomorrow.