So, if you’re like me, then you probably don’t love to sleep.
I don’t mean that I avoid it at all costs. I mean, it’s nice and I feel much better when I have good sleep and I know sleeping well is essential to my health, but I love being awake much, much more.
I love to fully experience life and make the most of my day. It gives me anxiety to wake up late and miss any of my day. I then feel rushed and frantic instead of calm and in control. Sometimes going to sleep feels like calling it quits.
I’m not sure why, but I’ve been this way ever since I can remember. It’s not always out of fear of missing out (FOMO), but rather the fact that I know that my time here on Earth is limited and sleep seems like such a waste of time.
So if you’re like me, being awake and being productive is like food for your soul. So much that you would sacrifice sleep for more precious time awake.
Then again, If you’re like me, you have also read up on the importance of sleep for aesthetic purposes, brainpower, performance, muscle mass and overall health in general.
You may have also spent time contemplating evolution’s role in sleep and have come to the conclusion that sleeping for 7-9 hours a night must be ESSENTIAL. Why else would the human-animal have evolved to lay unconscious for 8 hours a day?
So, I wonder, how many of you out there are like me?
The path of least resistance makes all rivers, and some men, crooked.
– Henry David Thoreau
A few posts back I had detailed out to you just how essential movement is to the function of all 12 of your bodily systems. –12 Critical Reasons Your Entire Body Needs Movement.
And, a few posts before that I related to you that form comes before function and that your routine of that form will dictate your potential of function. –Posture Before Movement and Routines Build Dreams.
Now, I want to detail out to you why, on occasion, you need to let all of that go and just take a break. Well, kind of… because if you’re like me, you have to schedule in your break and motivate yourself through things like asceticism.
This blog post explores balance, abstinence, and asceticism to improve your health.
Sleep Affects the Entire Body
I originally started this blog post to encompass the role of sleep for the health of all 12 systems of the body. I prepared a long outline detailing the effects of sleep on your body in various ways with links to the supporting research.
After perusing the World Wide Web, it turns out that this subject has been written about countless times with great scientific proof linking sleep to the health of every system in your body. Here is a link for those of you that need that. 11 Effects of Sleep Deprivation on Your Body.
A quick note though. If you aim to be healthy and fit, you must know, without a doubt, that Sleep is just as important as Eating Real Food, Exercising and taking care of your Emotional health.
Health is About Balance
Instead of a long blog that has been done many times, I thought I’d generalize the subject of abstinence and relate to you why it may help you and why it may be the missing piece of your health regiment. Remember, you need balance in all things, including constant movement and its counterpart rest. Abstinence often referred to as fasting, can have major regenerative health effects on the mind and body.
In the example of movement, we synthesized how optimal health of an individual cannot be achieved without a routine of movement. Its counterpart, sleep or rest is equally as essential to optimal health. Sleep is abstinence or rather a fast from wakefulness.
Wakefulness has been described by Dr. Matthew Walker, author of Why We Sleep, as a low-level, carcinogenic-like activity that degenerates the physical and mental states of your body. The World Health Organization has even classified any type of night shift work as a probable carcinogen.
Abstinence of wakefulness is needed so the body may rest, reset and regenerate. Abstinence provides an opportunity to take care of the maintenance, cleaning, and refreshing needed to function optimally.
How can these two opposites of inactivity and activity, both be essentials for optimal health?
It’s all about balance and in my opinion, our culture today is so out of balance in this area and more. I prefer a 90/10 balance in my life. It makes it more bearable, less strict but still on task.
5 Alternative ways Asceticism Improves your Health.
Asceticism is the practice of abstinence or fasting as a measure of individual and spiritual discipline. This intentional practice of strong will can ground you spiritually and help to prepare you for anything that life may throw at you.
A strong will and faith are your best defenses against difficult times. This voluntary act of abstinence can help to create resilience in our soft, modern world. They will strengthen you and your health.
Let’s dig into some of the imbalances that may present themselves in our life and tease out the ones that can be improved by abstinence in some form or another.
- Awake and Asleep
- Feast and Famine
- Technicity and Humanity
- Collectivism and Individualism
- Spending and Saving
Fast Asleep
My current view of much of the world is an increasingly sedentary one. Kind of like the movie Wall-E.
Contrary to this belief, I also feel that most people work too much. The thing is work today is often in sedentary positions or filled with repetitive postures. It’s a double-edged sword.
These work postures are often similar to their home postures. Sitting, staring at blue screens until they fall asleep only to get up and do it all over again. When they do finally fall asleep it is often later than desired, in a room filled with even more blue light and commonly induced with some kind of drug or nightcap.
It is well known that screens, lights, and chemicals all have an ill effect on the quality and quantity of your sleep. As I related above and in a past blog post on sleep, the quality and quantity of your sleep are essential to the health of your body.
Fasting from wakefulness is one of the many ways to improve upon your health Physically, Chemically, and Emotionally.
One of my favorite scientific souvenirs that I have gathered along the way is the discovery of the Glymphatic System.
The Glymphatic System activates during sleep and has the potential to clear out waste in the central nervous system as well as introduce a regenerative function. Without a routine of quality sleep, your brain will be inundated with waste products. This will in turn have all kinds of negative effects. Brain fog, decrease in cognition, link to Alzheimers, etc.
Much like the hormetic effect of heavy weights on the muscles of a bodybuilder. Wakefulness is a mental act of strength training that needs rest for the rebuilding and hypertrophy of the brain. It’s all about balance.
The hormetic effect can benefit every organ in the body if used properly.
We can easily apply these principles to your digestive system as you will see in the next section. This fasting from food will allow a reset to the entire body just as sleep does.
Fast Food
I have been a fan of fasting from food in some form or another for quite some time now.
I didn’t always feel this way though.
Eating Real Food is an Innate Essential built around proper chemical nutrition for a healthy body. Real foods are the building blocks of life and without them, we would cease to exist.
So, how could not eating real food also create a healthy outcome?
For me, reading scientific papers on the idea wasn’t enough to convince me that I needed to start fasting. I’m very wary of all the fads, gadgets, and gizmos that marketing implements into our modern lives. Many of our scientific papers, although altruistically created, are manipulated to support ideologies and trends that contribute to our neophilia.
In my case, I had to also look at fasting from a historical perspective, a natural perspective and a scientific one. Fasting to our ancestors was normal. It was part of the routine of life.
Our ancestral ways of hunting and gathering would naturally create times of feast and times of famine. That fact alone doesn’t qualify fasting as a healthy protocol, but the fact that our bodies have evolved over thousands of years as hunters and gatherers did give the idea of fasting some weight.
When contemplating the historical impact that fasting would have on our modern bodies, I could easily understand how the last 100 years of industrial culture has inevitably confused our bodies. 3-5 meals a day, loaded with preservatives, additives, and sugar has to be the antithesis of our ancient hunter, gatherer bodies. Right?
I also found it fascinating that fasting has been such a large part of religious history. That culturally we have implemented many fasting protocols as part of the religious experience for thousands of years. The idea of asceticism, used often in religion, is appealing to my personality.
Fasting can be performed in many ways and with many different goals. Intermittent fasting and multi-day fasting are the most common unless you include breakfast.
Intermittent fasting
Intermittent fasting is my go-to way to reset my digestive system. I can do it any day of the week without much thought. Although it isn’t something I do routinely, I use it when I feel it necessary.
Feeling bloated? Digestive system sluggish? Have a bad cheat weekend? Intermittent fasting might help. Skip breakfast and maybe even lunch at most.
If you can make it from dinner to dinner, you’ll have gone at least 24 hours. And that to me is the segway into a multi-day fast. Once you get past 24 hours, the health effects of fasting become even greater as does the challenge.
Multi-day fasting
Fasting for 24 hours or more has been shown to have multiple benefits.
The Immune system becomes stronger. The Excretory system gets cleaner. The Vascular System calms and almost all chemical markers improve. Insulin levels find balance and the Endocrine system increases Growth Hormone and decreases the stress hormones.
With all these positives who wouldn’t benefit from fasting? There must be some negatives, right?
Well for starters, the biggest negative to fasting is… STARVING!
Obviously, there are some that could stand to lose a pound or two. Others, not so much. The longer you fast, the more nutrition you are denying your body. The purpose of fasting from real food should be to balance out your system, not to be an extremist. No one likes an extremist.
Long term fasting
Okay, so the verdict is still out on long-term fasting for me.
I can’t openly recommend this for everyone or anyone as it goes against much of what I know and believe. That being said, there are many who have fasted more than a week or two who anecdotally relate benefits in regards to their autoimmune disorders.
Our world today almost always demands proof with a scientific paper on how this is 100% going to fix all your problems. I have never found this to be true in any case. Humans are complex and there is no one size fits all when trying to live up to your health’s potential.
I have however noticed that information is often cherrypicked to market a product or prove a point. The science is rarely settled but often manipulated to advance someone else’s objective. Pay Attention!
Long-term fasting fits into this category. Some will claim huge benefits when done while using their exclusive product. Others will claim its destructive properties in lieu of their alternative product. Both have science to back up their claims. Check out TRUE NORTH HEALTH as they are one of the leaders in guided fasts.
It’s crazy out there, so just use common sense. When in doubt find a health practitioner that can steer you in the right direction.
Fasting isn’t a new trend and probably shouldn’t be pushed to any extreme. Fasting from food, like all of my Innate Essentials listed, is best performed with some routine in mind. Routines build dreams and your distractions hinder them. As you can see, taking a break from your routines can in some cases positively affect your life.
Tech Fast
Distractions from your routines aren’t the same as fasting from routines. It’s just a form of procrastination.
Our dependence on technology has increased and for some, we don’t know how to survive without it. Technicity has taken over all of our lives slowly drowning out our humanity.
Removing distractions is one of my first essentials to your health, but what can you do to improve upon your life with these seemingly necessary technologies?
Take a break once in a while. Technology fasts are a newer invention but have already shown some promising health outcomes for those that can part with their devices.
Technology fasts can come in all different shapes and sizes. Choose what you want. The point is to have some self-awareness of your habits and environment. To reconnect with real, lived human experience.
Start with the easy stuff, place your phone in another room while you’re sleeping. You can also turn in on airplane mode if you’re feeling brave. Sleep without being tethered to a device.
Another easy trick is to shut off your wireless router at night time. Buy a timer that automatically shuts off the router while you’re supposed to be asleep. That cuts your WiFi exposure by at least 30 percent daily. Something our ancestors never had roaming through their bodies.
Turn off lights and screens around dusk. Try using warm lights or candlelight to help your circadian rhythm get its groove back. It’s a caveman style bedtime routine.
Consider abstaining from technology for longer periods of time.
- Pick 1 hour a day for smartphone use.
- Go 1 full day without any electronics.
- Try 1 week in a remote area without any devices.
Cut out the radiation, turn off all the unnatural frequencies and eliminate blue lights from your routines where possible.
I’m not going to attempt to list all the fringe benefits but use your head. All of these devices didn’t exist 100 years ago. Now they are with you 24/7.
Go caveman. Your sleep quality will improve. Your eyes will get a rest and your brain will thank you.
Fasting from tech allows for reconnection to the real world, nature, God, humanity and your inner self.
Social Fast
Along the same lines of connecting to the real world, sometimes you need a break from the collective social scene. Taking time for yourself isn’t always the easiest, but even just a short excursion alone can reset and recharge your emotional health.
For some abstinence from social interactions or just social media is absolutely essential to their health.
Personally, I tend to be more of an extrovert. My wife leans more towards an introvert. Often our natural behaviors can create some friction in our relationship.
She needs more quality alone time to reset and recharge. I on the other hand enjoy real-life social interactions on the regular. However, social media is deadening to my soul.
A great way to create routines for social fasts is to incorporate meditation or prayer into your daily life.
Allow yourself to connect spiritually with your creator and shut down our cultural FOMO.
I start each and every day with a modified SAVERS strategy as described by Hal Elrod in his books on Miracle Mornings.
First on my list before anything else is silence, followed by prayer and biblical studies. I am determined to make my goal of reading the Bible in its entirety this year. I have found the Bible in a Year Podcast by Ascension and would recommend it to anyone wanting to read through the bible.
When possible I’ll do some breathwork or meditation as I described to you in 3 Essential Movements to Improve Lung Health.
Exercise is almost always done in the morning and it again provides me with an opportunity to tune out the social world and get stuck inside my head. Connect with my inner voice and thoughts. This has been my go-to for many years when practicing Self-Awareness.
In more recent years, I have found that reading and writing helps me to extrapolate my thoughts and connect with my individual ideas about what it means to live well.
Spending Fast
Some of the authors I have latched onto, preach financial independence and personal responsibility. This is welcome in these current times of entitlements and dependence.
One of the challenges that many in the FIRE movement will put out there is to try a spending fast.
It doesn’t need much explanation but just try and go a day without spending money. It’s not as easy as you think in our current culture. If you can do that easily, let me know how you do with a week-long spending fast and more.
I can’t give you any science articles that espouse the health benefits of a spending fast, but I can tell you it is empowering to impose control on something that provides pleasure and sustenance for so many. To have intention with something that is often taken for granted is eye-opening.
Hold Fast
Speaking of intention, when I came across the term asceticism, I already knew the practice but not the term. Being able to place a name on the intention and action I was performing was helpful. It created clear direction and a keen self-awareness of my actions.
Asceticism is the practice of abstinence as a measure of individual and spiritual discipline. This intentional practice of strong will can ground you spiritually and help to prepare you for anything that life may throw at you.
A strong will and faith are your best defenses against difficult times. The voluntary act of abstinence can help to create resilience in our soft, modern world.
With each of these actions above, one must perform some form of asceticism in order to accomplish the goal.
- For good, quality sleep, you will need to deny yourself or avoid many of the modern advancements. You will need to abstain from blue lights, technology, and sleep aids. Furthermore, you will have to structure your day to prioritize sleep. Sacrifices have to be made to live in congruence with your natural state.
- For a reset to your digestive system, you will need to abstain from real nourishing food. This is truly a test of will.
- For a connection to the real world, you will need to abstain from technologies that can distract from your day.
- For connection to your inner self, you will need to abstain from social gatherings and even better, social media.
- For management of your relationship with money, you will need to abstain from mindless spending and consumerism.
None of these are easy, but that’s the point. You don’t have to do these things, but in voluntarily doing them, you will grow stronger.
“Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times.
Good times create weak men. And, weak men create hard times.”
― G. Michael Hopf
One Adjustment Action Step
Practice abstinence and asceticism responsibly.
Intentionally fast from wakefulness with quality Sleep.
Intentionally fast from Eating Real Food.
Intentionally fast from technology and find humanity. – Reality
Intentionally fast from culture and feed your individuality. – Self-Awareness
Intentionally fast from spending and use what you have. – Take the Oath
I have practiced asceticism long before I knew the word to describe it. It was just a way to improve upon my mindset and incorporate some grit.
I hope you enjoy this odd take on why you should abstain from things you may enjoy or need in order to improve your health.
Nick the DC
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