Fasting

Fasting is an ancient form of metabolic manipulation to achieve an altered state of consciousness. It's all about brain chemistry. Mystics claim a range of results from visions (hallucinations?) to intense clarity of vision (corticosteroid stimulation?). Intentional and rational self-deprivation is a way of concretely practicing control over desire, impulse or addiction. 

There are many ways of fasting. In the current industrialized world, there are more opportunities than ever to fast. We are all too easily acculturated to instant gratification of desire or perceived need. The untrained mind and body can easily become embroiled in a daily cycle of need and pleasure. The rampant obesity and addiction in modern societies attests to this available wheel of misery and confusion. Capitalism thrives on feeding this wheel with more and more product for profit.

I have found that learning to live in moderation with all things requires a form of constraint which modern hedonists might consider fasting or self-deprivation. I experience this moderation as liberating. By detaching myself from mindless cycles of need and need fulfillment, I am able to see the path to wellness and personal peace much more clearly. Simply questioning desire or perceived need regularly is a worthwhile practice. Just because you are capable of fulfilling a perceived need does not mean that fulfilling that perceived need is the way to actual happiness. This is a valuable thread of skepticism to maintain in the practice of mindfulness.