I DID A WATER FAST FOR EIGHT DAYS. HERE’S WHAT I LEARNT.

We all know that the last few years have been incredibly hard.?

But beyond that, modern life sure does seem to have a way of building up the pressure.

The pressure to succeed at work. To make a comfortable home. To impress the right people. To hustle. To win. To be better. To be fitter. To look stronger. To achieve more. To do more, more, more.

It feels like you have to constantly be on the go and always moving forward.?

This pressure comes from all angles. From yourself. From work. From your family. From friends. From the media. From a society that has seemingly forgotten that it’s the simple things that are the most meaningful.?

The first question we often ask people when we meet them is “So, what do you do?” And then it’s talk about work. But work is only a fraction of what life is. We all know it. But we all default to being busy as a way to get away from who we really are. Or not even delve into who you might really be. We are always competing against something, someone, or some ideal.

We try to outrun our past. We try to beat today. And dominate tomorrow.

But none of that means actually stopping, breathing, and truly reflecting. It’s always action.

I’ve had an interesting journey of self-actualisation over my life, like we all have!?

For me, I never felt like I fit in at school. I hated birthday parties, so stopped going, and then stopped being invited.

I holed myself up in my bedroom throughout my teenage years, with a crushing shyness, an anxiety of the world, a gripping depression, and with no idea or direction on how to equip myself to communicate what I was feeling, to anyone.

This teenage life lead to an adulthood always cloaked in a self-defence mechanism of keeping my truth to myself. Indeed, not even knowing what that truth was. Of being too afraid to explore the depths that lay inside me.

Years of feeling down. Of feeling inadequate. Of feelings of hopelessness.

I have been able to distract myself for many years from uncovering my real self through busying myself with work projects, running marathons, and watching sports.

I can quote obscure stats and results from decades ago, yet forget the most basic of daily family matters- you know the things that really matter.

The irony of my career being focussed on communicating and helping others to bring joy to the world, whilst personally finding it impossible to do the same in many aspects of my life away from work is not lost on me.

In fact, this dichotomy only added to the levels of self-frustration, self-flagellation, and self-loathing that I carried around with me.

There have been a lot of dark moments in my life. It feels like a lot of life has been cloaked in the night sky of a soul unsure of how to reach the light with ease.

Don’t get me wrong. I know my life is blessed. I’m healthy. A beautiful family. A strong wife. Beautiful kids. I was so lucky to be born into a country with so much going for it. But, again, knowing all of the great privileges I have had the good fortune to be blessed with, only made my lack of being able to see the light feel even worse.

Using social media to escape.

Eating to distract.

Buying things thinking that The Next Thing Will Make Me Truly Happy.

None of it works, because none of it has any depth at all. It’s all an extrinsic measurement of happy that we think might work.

Too much thinking. Too much distraction. Too much consuming.

Consuming crap processed solids. Consuming poisonous liquids. Consuming advertising and media and technology that makes us feel inadequate. Filling our mind, body, and soul with bad energy that has created a society that is in failing health: not just in terms of depression, obesity, and anxiety. In terms of spiritual health. Financially, as a country, we’ve never been more comfortable. But that comfort means we never push ourselves to journey inwards. We are distracted night and day.

I have felt disconnected from anything of real, true, depth throughout my life. And I have not had any road path to know how to unlock the inner treasure laying inside of me.

How could I feel so bad when I, in the big scheme of things, had next to nothing to complain about?

But I’ve always known that there has to be more. I just had no idea how to uncover what that more was.

A few months ago my wife Sheridan began uncovering the incredible health benefits many people have experienced doing a prolonged water fast.

Not intermittent fasting.

No food.

Just water.

For days on end.?

People healing themselves and curing all sorts of things. Or people uncovering their spiritual true selves through taking away all the cruxes of life that we carry or surround ourselves with.

After we thoroughly researched it, we decided to take the plunge at a healing centre designed to support people on their fasting journeys.

Sheri was originally going to go first, but through happenstance, we had to flip the dates, which meant I became the guinea pig.

I went in thinking that I was going to get super hungry. Thanks Captain Obvious!

But beyond that, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I’d never gone more than 24 hours not eating, except when violently ill, and never by choice. When you’re sick your body knows not to eat, and to take the time to rest. But we’ve conditioned ourselves to “soldier on”. We don’t listen anymore. We’re too distracted.

To say it was weird being dropped off by Sheri is an understatement. I was going to spend a week with strangers, not eating, only drinking water, and fulling expecting to lose all of my energy. And I was paying for the privilege!?

Strange, mysterious times, however, require strange, mysterious solutions.

I won’t give you a day-by-day description, but I will give you an overview.

In short, this was the hardest thing I have ever done in my life.

I have never been so tired. So thoroughly exhausted I would have to crawl to get water.

I have never been so mentally challenged. Far harder than the physical side of the process is the assault on your mental capacity to find a way through.

I have never wanted to give up something as much as when it was 3 in the morning five days in, and I was cramping in my stomach, and unable to sleep. I’ve run a bunch of marathons, and they were a piece of piss compared to this. Pissing, incidentally, is one of the few things I could muster up the energy to do through the midway point of my stay.

Words cannot convey how tough I found it.

Yet, it is one of the most profoundly beautiful experiences of my life.

Of realising that my mind doesn’t control me.?

I control it.

That once you strip back your physical and mental barriers, the spiritual journey can begin.

That through being broken, you can rebuild stronger than before.

That you can shed the things that cause you pain.

The day I broke the fast was just a magical time. A small ceremony was held and a plate of fresh fruit unveiled for me. The colours were eye-popping. The smells were invigorating. The crunch of coldness of that first bite of watermelon- almost impossible to describe.

When everything is taken away, getting something back is awe-inspiring.

How amazing the “little things” are.

The sun on your face. The breeze by your back. The sheer, simple beauty of LIFE. How life is far too short to spend it poisoning myself with the bad energy of processed rubbish.?

I walk past shop windows filled with the processed food and drink I used to regularly consume and feel ill just thinking about it. Long may this last.?

I am making the effort to I have a minute-long hug with each member of my family each day. That’s a dopamine hit I can subscribe to.

I savour every mouthful. Breathe in the air. And I’m endeavouring to stop and do one thing at a time wherever possible. Multi-tasking is sooooo July 2022.

Importantly my time water fasting wasn’t just spent not eating, alone. It was guided by a team that knows that life is multi-layered. ?

Being in a deprived state where the only things you are consuming are water, air, sunlight, sound healing, guided breath work, ice baths, heat therapy, art therapy, and psychological counselling, is a completely different way to challenge what is truly possible inside your mind, your heart, your gut, and your cells.?

Daily health checks also put my mind at ease that what I was going through wasn’t harming me. All my signs remained steadfastly strong throughout, no matter how poorly I felt.

The great unknown lying underneath who you think you are is where the real magic is.

And that can only be uncovered by digging and falling and scratching through the dirt until you feel like you have lost sense of what what you think you know.

Only then, I feel, can a pathway into the spirit be opened.?

I’ve never felt healthier. I’ve never felt more alive. And I’ve never felt more positive. I now feel like I have some deep learnings to be able to finally be able to share the love that I have, that I’ve never been able to fully express.?

I’m not there yet. I don’t think any of us can ever be. But at least I know which direction I’m supposed to be heading.

Up.