Self Mastery - Begins with Discipline

For a minute there I had to stop and think what day of my fast I was on - perhaps because I am feeling so detached from it. The days matter, but really they don't - and I am not sure even how to explain that! Perhaps it's because when you are cleansing especially in the beginning, your focus needs to be on the tasks at hand.

I just heard someone use the word discipline - a word I use quite a lot with myself. It used to be a negative word at one time in my life - however, once I started my first detox and certainly during my 40 days fasting, it came to have a whole new meaning.

Now, I look forward to and enjoy these little (and not so little) disciplines I have incorporated into my daily life. Of course perhaps the biggest one might be fasting, another one could be exercise - and then, choosing to eat only homemade foods might also be a form of self regulation.

Whenever I need to get to the bottom of something - I turn to the dictionary and look it up! Once you get past the negative connotations that have come to surround this word you begin to see the other words associated with it... such as:

control

mastery

regulation

restraint 

train 

prepare

Wow, what a word this starts to become, especially when you place the word 'self' in front or after of most the them.  Taking it a little further, if we apply each of these to our body then we start to see where a little discipline can take us. 

It just leads me to wonder if part of the problem in our lives which leads to dysfunction (depression, disease, excess weight) lies with being disciplined in the wrong areas...

April  

Picture of love!

Will Power, Self Control - Mastery

Today is my second day of this mini - cleanse and I am already planning my weekend menu! LOL But, I will add right here that this is not difficult to do at all - at one time, when my mind or my will power or my self control was NOT my own - doing something like this would have been nearly impossible.

If you want to get started with fasting, detoxes and mini or Master Cleanses but are feeling such a huge level of resistance - start out slowly. I can tell you from my own experience that these issues of not feeling as if you are in control of your own mind are very real. And for the most part you are not in control of your own mind - at least not yet.

It probably took me about 4 months to get in the door of mind-control and then to take over the reigns, so to speak, once I was inside. This takes work, dedication, commitment, perseverance and whatever you can throw at it - but it is the most worthwhile thing that I have ever done.

In my book The Pagan Diet, I talk you through how to start incorporating fasting into your life slowly, taking each day as it comes and all the little things that you need to know, what you will have to work through and many of the issues, such as hunger, that you will face as you walk yourself forward into a better place.

I have not one shred of doubt in my body's ability to change, heal, fix, alter, remove or accomplish anything that I set out to do - and now that my mind is fully onside and working with me, I know that this is a full on approach to living. Perhaps one of the best things is that I know there is still so much more of me to awaken, return, find and discover or re-cover - this is like an adventure!

Through proper eating (if you are uncertain of what you need to be eating order my book The Way to Heal/Detox) you take back your body, by connecting with the land, keeping a garden, including ceremony and ritual in your life you take back your spirit and through water fasting, cleansing, detox, spending time in deep contemplation (The Pagan Diet) - you take back your mind. 

This is a life that is interesting, full, alive and entirely built upon a solid foundation of following your dreams, opening up your heart and learning how to connect to universal Oneness. For those of you who are wondering - no, this does not happen spontaneously, an awakening is a cellular activity involving an energetic shift that requires of you to overcome the obstacles placed in your way.

If you want to be, you can be in charge of these shifts while removing the obstacles

April

My daughter's painting