I think fasting from time to time is important for everyone of us. But what most people do as fasting, (not eating this, starving, not eating that, etc) is not what I have in mind.
My kind of fast should be more life supporting, it should have a long lasting positive effect on my physical and (more important) psychological health.
I am inspired by various articles I read on blogs about minimalism. One of them is about A Media Fast on the zenhabits blog. I did something similar last year, when i put away my laptop for 2 weeks and did not have a cell phone anyways. But this time I want to set myself some clearer goals for the fast.
The goal is to get rid of all these little addictions that form my life like caffeine and sugar. But also get rid of all these little habits that influence me, like spending too much time in front of the computer, cluttering my life and not getting enough physical exercise.
Some of the media fast stuff will not be too hard for me, since I do not have a TV, a radio, DVD player. No newspaper is coming to my door every day and I don't go to the theater very often. But on the other hand my computer has become my all in one doorway to the media world. I watch movies and TV series on it, I read newspapers and blogs on it, I use it for communication and for listening to music. (And during my internship I sat in front of it 8 hours a day during work)
That has to change. Therefore the most important part of my fast is to reduce the time I spend in front of my computer from currently 8 - 10 hours a day down to 30 mins a day maximum. But there are other things I want to change too. Currently I am drinking something with caffeine every day. Also I think that I am running around with my headphones plugged into my ears too much. So, to summarize it, I listed my does and don't s for the fast.
What I will not do in these 2 weeks:
- No Caffeine
- No extra Sugar
- No Alcohol
- only organic, fresh, vegetarian food
- No TV
- No Music (meaning: not using my mp3 player and other music devices to distract me)
- minimize Cell phone use (not sure how, but probably turn off the whole day and only use when really necessary)
- use Computer max 30 mins a day
- go to bed before 11 pm
I assume through these changes there will be a tremendous amount of "extra time" that i will have every day. Therefore here is a list of things I want to accomplish with this "extra time".
What I will do:
- de-clutter my possessions and give away everything i do not need anymore
- create a vision board
- spend more time with people that are important to me
- be active, do sports (Volleyball, Soccer, Riding my bike, etc)
- Solitude: get more clear about who i am and what i want
- meditate twice a day
- finally start learning to play guitar
- do whatever else I want to do and does not conflict with the rest of my fast
I am sure that there is a million other things that i will discover while doing the fast that i will want to do. I will try to do all of them as long as they go along with the rest of my fast.
