Mind Fasting

“Eat to live and don’t live to eat“ is a proverb. Fasting has been advised as a religious practice in many religions. Even Doctors today, suggest intermittent fasting, for the number of health benefits, it has. So, we all agree, periodical fasting is good for the body and we understand the importance of fasting. However, we don’t think about fasting our mind.

If food fasting enables better digestion and absorption of nutrients, will not mind fasting enable better contemplation, analysis and comprehension of ideas and thoughts?

Earlier, while I used to travel in the train, I used to have the habit of buying any snacks, being brought by the vendors, at different train stations. It is not because I used to feel hungry, but because I used to feel bored. Seeing the snack, I would buy it and eat it, as it helps me to while away sometime, savouring and relishing the taste. So, in spite of not needing to eat, I eat just for passing time and it ultimately adds to the excess calories, which gets difficult to burn out.

We are all in a similar situation now when it comes to information. We live in a world of information overload. We can access any content, at the touch of a button in either text form, audio form or video form. We are constantly bombarded with information, from a variety of sources. So, we are keeping on consuming information, just because it is freely available, and we think consuming such information is a productive use of idle time.

But we also need to ask ourselves, how much of it do we really need? In what way that information is useful to us? How can we translate that information into some meaningful action?

Just like consuming more food than what the body needs, is a strain on the digestive system,  so is the excess consumption of information, which cannot be processed by the brain.

There is a nice saying, “Don't bite more than what you can chew.” This applies to information too. We are constantly adding more inputs than what our mind can process, and ultimately our mind gets cramped with too much of information, which often becomes counterintuitive and leads to action paralysis.

 

So, how can we avoid this? We can engage in Mind fasting. By this term, Mind Fasting, I am referring to periods of time, you can be free from any information intake through any form such as computer, mobile, books, podcasts, YouTube videos, TV etc. To start with, you can restrict usage of mobile phones or any electronic devices, for the first few hours and last few hours of the day, enabling a smooth startup and shutdown to your mind, every day. In addition, you can engage in activities, which are not heavy to the brain, such as having lighthearted conversations, listening to some relaxing music, Nature walk, enjoying a drive by the countryside or just sitting in silence. There is a type of meditation, which is called Vipassana. Vipassana, is a silent retreat where people spend days together sitting in silence, doing nothing. The purpose of this meditation is to allow some free time for the mind to process the information, that has been dumped into it.
 
Like a machinery or a computer system, our mind too, follows the Input - Process – Output cycle.  So, when it comes to mind, it can be Information - Thinking – Action. So, the quality of output is dependent on the quality of input. So, if we want to have better results or outcome from our thoughts, we should become conscious about what information to consume and what information to let go.

 

Our success in life, doesn’t depend upon the quantity of thoughts, but the quality of thoughts. So, we should strive to focus on quality and not quantity of information. By exercising prudence in this, we can live a more productive life.

 D. Senthil Kannan,

  Managing Trustee, PALMS, Tuticorin.

  Author of "Transformational Thoughts" - A Journey of learning 

  Email: senthilkannand@gmail.com