Fasting for those who can't

 Pregnant? Nursing?  Diabetic or hypoglycemic? Sick?  But its fast Sunday and you want to fast and have the blessings that come with it. So what do you do?  Lets take a look at why God has us fast.  In chapter 25 of the Gospel Principles manual it says  "Fasting helps us gain strength of character. When we fast properly, we will learn to control our appetites and passions. We are a little stronger by having proved to ourselves that we have self-control. If we teach our children to fast, they will develop the spiritual strength to overcome greater temptations later in their lives."

I have come to learn for myself that Fasting is all about over coming the Natural Man and feeding  the spirit.   Fasting is about denying your ego and your negative mind. When you fast your  negative mind will  start to get irrational "We are going to die if we dont eat!" it will say. "IF I just eat a little bit I can still call it fasting." "I ate bread for the sacrament sooooo  I can eat this slice of bread and its not really breaking my fast."  You will have whining, and kicking, and screaming from your negative mind telling you to eat or you will die a horrible grueling death of 24 hour starvation.  If you are truly fasting you will have some of these thoughts but if you push through you will see that in about 20-23 hours of a true fast the urge to eat and the compulsive rationalizing to eat are gone and you feel  at peace.   

Lets look at the  phases of fasting and what it does to the brain/body really  quick or you can skip down to  how to modify a fast.

Stage one is eating the last meal before you fast from food and drink. So lets say it is Saturday night at 5 and you eat a nice light dinner and drink plenty of water.  At this time your insulin levels increase because of the food you just ate. You  have a uptake of glucose and any excess glucose is stored in the liver.

You get ready for bed, sleep nice, and wake up in the post - absorptive phase. This happens 6-24 hours after beginning your fast.  In this phase your insulin levels start to decrees.

 So if we stay on our  time table this happens at about 11am-3pm Sunday. Your insulin levels are very low and your body is constantly reminding you that you are hungry and thirsty. If you do not give into your body's  urges to eat and drink, your body will start to  breakdown the stores of glycogen in the liver releasing it as glucose. Your glycogen stores last for roughly 24 hours.

Near the end of this stage you will start to feel less of an urge or compulsion to eat as your body consumes the stored glycogen. This sensation of being satisfied could happen  as early as 20 hrs from the time you started your fast.

At roughly 23-24 hrs from your fast you reach a new phase where new glucose from amino acids  is manufactured in the liver in a process called “gluconeogenesis”. Literally, this is translated as “making new glucose”. Your glucose levels will  fall a bit but stay within the normal range.

The cycle is complete  at  5 on Sunday when you are sitting down to a nice light meal and drink plenty of water.

The CYCLE.

Being fed and life is great! 

I m kind of hungry. 

I NEED it!  I need food NOW!- - breaking point

Im at peace and I feel I can wait a few more hours.

Then breaking your fast and feeling fed  again.

How to modify a fast

I have been pregnant or nursing for the last 8 years  and have wanted to fast.  After studying  what fasting was doing to my body and what fasting was doing for me mentally and physically I started to fast on Fast Sunday. Now even  with a 4 month nursing baby who likes to eat every 2 hrs - I fast nearly every Sunday.  The key is to  follow the cycle  that fasting from food and water provide.  Pick something that you feel  like you would have a hard time living without... some examples are internet, meat,  your phone, chocolate, electricity, grains, your mirror, saying your favorite expression. The point is to make it something HARD to go without and then follow the cycle. 

Fasting should be hard- a sacrifice- a way to exercise self-control. If it isn't hard... it isn't truly fasting.   As of right now I fast from the internet every Sunday and from food I need to chew. After a few months my body will make  enough milk for 24 hrs on my last fasting meal and water and I will skip  the small smoothy. So Pick something uncomfortable, something that will give you  constant reminders that you are fasting from it, like fasting from food does.  Then complete the cycle.

It is important to  note that depending on what you chose to fast from your cycle may take longer than  24 hrs.  If I fasted from something like meat or sugar it may be several days before I get to  " I HAVE TO HAVE THIS NOW" or the breaking point part of the cycle. This is where you justify anything to have what you are fasting from.  If you decide to fast from electricity you may reach this breaking point in 8- 30 hrs.  Remember not to break your fast until you have  moved past this stage and are feeling at peace or satisfied, and a have a willingness to wait until the prescribed time to end the fast has arrived. The point is to give your self an opportunity to put off the natural man and deny the body and its impulses and take that time to focus on the purpose of your fast regardless of what you are abstaining from.

One other thing to consider is a prolonged fast.  When I do a prolonged fast I pick a time frame usually 10-40 days and stick with it long enough to  repeat this cycle a few times. When I do a prolonged fast I fast from sugar, or meat, or I do a diet of grains and green. Eating only green things, primarily vegetables, with an emphasis on leafy greens for calcium, seaweed for minerals, and avocado for healthy fats; with a few fruits (green apples, green grapes, kiwi, or pears) and pistachios to enrich the diet and keep the blood sugars balanced. This diet allows the blood to become more alkaline, decreases cortisone and other stress factors in the tissues, adds moisture to the colon and purifies the liver, pancreas, and intestines. If it is not a grain or not the color Green I dont  eat it. This allows me to eat, and eat well I might add, but still gives me practice being the master of my body and practice denying myself the things my body might want or think it needs.  Another prolonged fast diet is called the Kitchari Diet and lots of Kundalin Yogi's do it for 30 days.

 A part often over looked when making fasting modifications is the fast offering. Continue to pay your fast offerings as if you were fasting from food- be generous with your offerings.  This  is also part of the law of the fast. Abstaining and giving are key to fasting. Just because you are not doing a true food and water fast does not mean you are exempt from the fast offering.

Mastering the  fast helps us master our selves. It makes it easier to exhibit self-control in other areas of our lives. Its an important commandment to keep.

As you find ways to  put off the natural man, exercise power over your body, and  let your spirit be in control you will be  blessed.  Fasting is a great way to do this.

However you do it, whatever you eat or don't eat, or do or don't do for your fast, remember to fast with prayer and purpose. Remember the cycle and move all the way through it, and not just give in as soon as you are at the breaking point. Its getting past that point and into the feelings of peace and acceptance where the true power of the fast comes in to play.

Sat Nam

 Put off the Natural man and come of conquer!

Fight for positive Sexuality

We hear a lot now days about the fight against pornography.  I do admit that pornography is a BIG problem even among the Saints.  But I have also learned that it is much better to fight bad things by filling your life with good. Joseph B. Wirthlin in his talk Seeking the Good says "We can fill our lives with good, leaving no room for anything else. We have so much good from which to choose that we need never partake of evil." The mantra -fighting the fight against pornography- isn't nearly as powerful to me as -Fighting for  Positive Sexuality. To me this includes so much more than DON'T DO THAT! I want to be in a place where I can teach all those around me that Sexual Energy is a gift from God that can be harness, controlled, shared, and a powerful blessing even to those who are not sexually active.
So how do we harness and control and share our powerful sexual energy if we are celibate or not sexually active right now?   Its easy we train our minds and body to live in a higher state. As we make good choices we feel a CHANGE in our hearts. As the sexual energy rises it goes up the cerebral spinal chakras  and we feel that energy lift us higher.  So we spend our day doing things that lift the body, and the mind, and the spirit.  Good things raise our vibration of our bodies, sin and negative things lower our vibration.  If you have done enough bad things you  put off that "bad vibe" that others pick up on and if they are spiritually minded they really don't even like being around people who have that "bad vibe". Good people also put off a strong

The LDS Conference Center seats 21,000 people

vibration. If you are spiritually minded you will pick up on it. The prophet's vibration is so strong and large it fills the whole conference center. If you have ever been to conference You KNOW the moment he comes into the room. No announcements are made like "all rise here comes the prophet!!!", you don't even have to be watching for him to come in, but as soon as he  comes in that great big room you FEEL him, and you stand.
 When we are balanced and filled with light we, like the people of King Benjamin, will have "No more disposition to do evil. " (Mosiah 5:2)  Part of being balanced is filling our life with the good things of God. Let me list a few things that raise a persons vibration. Healthy eating, scripture study, service, smiling, temple work, PRAYER, exercise, playing with children, connecting with a new born baby, taking the sacrament and repenting, meditating, connecting with nature, being grateful.... There are so so many. But the ones that have the most lasting effects and that raise the vibration quickly and safely are Prayer- deep meditative conversation with the Father.  Applying the atonement through repentance and taking the sacrament.  Reading your scriptures in a way that you are learning and feeling the spirit.  Going to the temple. All these are things we do with our minds and for our spirits, they  raise the vibration far but to reach even farther in spiritual areas we need to master our bodies and quiet our minds. The fastest way to do this is by doing Kundalini Yoga and meditation in addition to those things listed above.
 I am going to assume that you know all about how wonderful meaningful prayer, scripture study, keeping the Sabbath day holy and attending meetings, and temple work bring to your life, so I wont go deep there, but I want to talk about  what  Kundalini Yoga and meditation will do for you.
Kundalini Yoga (YK) strengthens the nervous system, and quiets the mind. It also balances the bodies energies. A kundalini rising is where the energy that is located at the base of the spine moves up the spine to the top of the crown.  It is a way of coming unto Christ. We are moving our energies and our divine potential out of the base "natural man" energy of the 3 lower earthly chakras up to the  upper triangle or what is also known as the spiritual chakras.  This movement of energy helps us connect with God, Christ, and our divine purpose on this earth.  We move  from a fallen state of energy- or lower vibration to a higher state of energy- or a higher vibration.  This is described as pure bliss.  You really have no more disposition to do evil when you are in this state- its heavenly.
The body is the vehicle of the soul. We can do so much spiritual work but the body is an eternal blessing. If we do not treat it as such we will miss much of the purpose of this earth life.  KY helps us train the body to put off the natural man and move  forward and upward. KY also helps us  quiet our minds so we can feel, and hear, and see the things of God. - So what does all this have to do with positive sexuality?
 When our bodies are balanced, and our energy is flowing the way God wants it to, our desires change.  Instead of seeing our bodies through  Satan's lenses we begin to see them as the powerful beautiful creations and eternal blessings from God.  Satan tells us we are ugly, fat, unattractive , that body parts

are dirty or nasty. He helps us hate our own eternal blessing of a body- and the bodies or body parts of our spouses.) This does not help healthy sexuality.  If our sexual energies are too low (or our first and second chakras are not as big as they should be or spinning as they should) we have a low sex drive. We don't feel that God given need or desire to be intimate with our spouse. If our first and second chakras are too big and there is too much energy in them we can have an over active sex drive. This can be unhealthy and can lead to feelings of a need to release this extra energy. Many people turn to sex and feel there is still energy left to burn. Satan entices them to look at porn or engage in other unhealthy sexual activities to  try and "balance" this extra energy and meet the extra need and pressure this energy puts on their system.   This is not healthy and like all the temptations of the Deceiver it is a trap, leads to addictions, and a larger amount of energy that is not being spent doing  what God would have us do.
Kundalini Yoga and meditation balance that energy. It sends energy where it needs to go and converts extra sexual energy into creative energy.  It brings a low desire in to a normal range and high desires  down to normal range. The system is balanced and a healthy sexual relationship can exist.  This works for people who are not sexually active as well. The body, mind, and the spirit know that sexual activity must wait until after marriage and  the energy will be sent up along the chakras for a balanced system.
Sat Kryia is the go to  yoga kryia for balancing the lower triangle ( the first three chakras located at the perineum, in the pelvis and in the solar plexus).  This moves the energies up and  helps the chakras to get the right amount of energy and sends any extra energy up.
Below are two videos  that show  you how to do Sat Kryia.  Below is  a link where you can read the directions and the MANY other benefits of doing this kryia.  LINK
So instead of telling our youth  they need Stop looking at porn or Don't look at porn  or Dont masturbate, or  whatever!... Lets give them tools- something TO DO when the  urge and temptation hit. Or give them tools to use daily to raise their vibration so there is no urge or temptation because they will  have NO disposition to do evil.

Chakras

First of all what are they?  A Chakra is an energy center in the  body and there are 8 main ones.  Chakras are not only energy centers but they are in constant movement they  are swirling vortexes of energy. The word Chakra comes from the Sanskrit word meaning wheels.  How open or closed these  energy centers are  effects your  Kundalini energy- or what we like to call our Divine Potential.  Lets back up some.  And take a min to  review the chart.  Start at  #1 and read a bit about each  energy center.

There are 8 major energy centers in the body and each energy center is responsible for certain types of energy and is associated with certain  feelings. Yes the  diagram only shows 7 the 8 th is your aura and your aura is affected by all the chakras and how they are interacting with each other.  Your aura which combines the effects of the other seven chakras can often be seen by others and is another post on its own- some day I might get around to writing one.  The chakras  and their swirling motion  tie the spiritual body, and physical body, and ethereal bodies together. They transfer spiritual information back and forth to and from your physical body and are centers where energy flows.  Remember that  swirling vortexes are powerful forms of energy. Think of  Hurricanes, tornadoes,and maelstroms for a visual reference. Just like these environmental vortexes, energy is constantly being pulled in and emitted out in  a circular motion internally through each chakra.  

The  first three chakras  deal with the basic needs of life and the physical needs of the body.  In the LDS world we would call this living as the natural man focusing only on  physical things that bring  pleasure, power, and posterity. In KY (Kundalini Yoga)  we call this  the lower triangle.  Lets talk about the upper triangle now. The chakras in the upper triangle  are 5, 6, 7  they accumulate, create, and refine the energy, and deal with more spiritual things.  Someone who lives in the upper triangle (think of  a wise man  who spends his days meditating in a cave, or people who devote ALL their time and energy to spiritual things) we consider them to be very enlightened and intuitive but they live in this triangle so they lack balance.
On to  the 4th chakra  or the heart center. The Heart Center  is the balancing point in the body between the flow of the upper energies of the Spiritual things or the Heavens and the lower energies that stem from the natural man or the energies of the Earth. A balancing of the energy in all the chakras  will meet here at the heart. 

When  man partook of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil there was more than just a physical detachment from God. Man's consciousness  fell as well.  In stead of being like god and balanced and spiritually minded  we fell to the lower triangle making us natural men and carnal minded. Lets read Mosiah  16 :3-5   

3 For they are carnal and devilish, and the devil has power over them; yea, even that old serpent that did beguile our first parents, which was the cause of their fall; which was the cause of all mankind becoming carnal, sensual, devilish, knowing evil from good, subjecting themselves to the devil.

 4 Thus all mankind were lost; and behold, they would have been endlessly lost were it not that God redeemed his people from their lost and fallen state.

 5 But remember that he that persists in his own carnal nature, and goes on in the ways of sin and rebellion against God, remaineth in his fallen state and the devil hath all power over him. Therefore he is as though there was no redemption made, being an enemy to God; and also is the devil an enemy to God.

So this isnt a good thing. We need to rise up and over come the natural man. Mosiah 3:19  

Knowing that energy attracts like energy its important to raise your vibration- raise your  kunidalini energy up the Chakras or Raise your divine potential  by putting off the natural man.  Here is a good  quote that  says  it better than I could. 

This relationship between behavior and your dominant chakra is key because energy acts like a magnet. We constantly attract vibrations to ourselves that are on the same wavelength as the chakras from which we are operating. Kundalini Yoga allows the kundalini energy to rise, balancing and coordinating all of the chakras.
Kundalini Yoga does not force the kundalini to rise; it prepares the body to allow it to rise so that you can experience your higher consciousness. When this balance of the chakras occurs, you become empowered; you are able to be a compassionate, conscious, and capable human being.
Yogi Bhajan taught about the functions and attributes of the eight major chakras so that we could understand and transform ourselves via the practice of Kundalini Yoga.
[From Kundalini Yoga: The Flow of Eternal Power by Shakti Parwha Kaur and The KRI Aquarian Teacher Training Level 1 Manual]

So when we tap in to our divine potential and divine energy we become  more Christ like. Pay attention to the word Energy its all over in the Scriptures if you are looking for it. "All energy of heart."  it is interesting  to me that when the word is used  it often corresponds to  the correct chakra. energy of heart- love and concern for children and others.  Or this one  " I did speak unto my people,and did urge them with great energy" here he is using the energy of his throat speaking words to convince others to  fight for freedom.
It should be our  goal to find a Good balance and to live in the heart chakra. We can come up  for spiritual highs but we cant live there or we wont be able to live this life as it was meant to be lived.  We can  spend time doing Earthly things- hey its part of life- but we cant live there or we will miss the spiritual experiences we are are meant to have in this life. So to live life to its fullest we  must seek a balance we must raise up from the natural man and shake yourself from the dust of the earth and become a saint - full of LOVE.   Heb 10:22 Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled (GR purified) from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.  Or in other words let us  be pure in heart  cleaned from evil minds and have a clean body free from the dust of the earth.

For more reading  check these helpful sites out
Chakras
The Eight Major Chakras
Yogi Bhajan Lecture: Living in Love
The Chakras and the Two Trees in The Garden of Eden
Chakra Center

LDS Living Magazine

 How Meditation Can Make You an Even Better Mormon

by SHELDON LAWRENCE

Visit the    Link   or read here.

 Between all our obligations—going to school, working, being a parent, and fulfilling Church callings—the business of life can be overwhelming. But in just 10 minutes a day, we can take up the Savior’s command to “Be still, and know that I am God.”

We often try to spiritually ground ourselves with daily prayer and scripture study. However, our commitment to these practices is sometimes irregular at best. During prayer, it’s natural for our minds to wander; when reading the scriptures, our attention often drifts to what we’re going to do next. Not surprisingly, it’s easy to feel spiritually empty and apathetic.

Faced with these problems, an important breakthrough for me came as I began practicing the art of meditation. Latter-day Saints often use the word “meditate” to mean something like “ponder.” But the type of meditation I discovered indicates a more intentional approach to bringing stillness and focus to our distracted minds. It is this purposeful cultivation of inner peace and quietude that, I believe, President McKay referred to when he said, “Meditation is the language of the soul. . . . [It] is one of the most secret, most sacred doors through which we pass into the presence of the Lord.”

Meditation, however, is not just a 10-minute activity in the morning. It entails an entire way of viewing and encountering the world. In my own spiritual life, I have found many of the truths taught by meditation masters have deepened and enriched my understanding of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.

Our True Essence

One of the central ideas of the philosophy of meditation is that at the core of every human being is an infinite soul. In the Hindu tradition, this essence is called the “atman.” The atman is a kind of divine spark, a piece of God inhabiting a human body. Human beings are  experiencing a temporary sense of separation from God but can reunite with Him as we remember our true nature as divine beings.

These ideas ought to resonate with Latter-day Saints who also understand that we are eternal beings and that our truest, deepest self derives from the same substance of God. We learn that “man was also in the beginning with God. Intelligence, or the light of truth, was not created or made, neither indeed can be.” It was in reference to this inner light that the Savior taught, “The Kingdom of God is within you.”

The Natural Man

Then why, if our inner self is “the light of truth,” is it sometimes so difficult to feel the presence of God? The complications come from our embodiment as human beings. When we come to earth, we “fall” from the paradise of God’s presence and enter a harsh realm that demands survival. We lose our sense of being in harmony with creation and instead become a “me” in competition with “others.” This selfish sense of self is referred to in meditation studies as the ego.

The ego is roughly equivalent to what the scriptures call the natural man. Just as meditation masters have identified the ego or “false self” as the thing that separates us from the presence of God, the Book of Mormon describes the natural man as the “enemy to God,” or in other words, the thing that creates enmity between ourselves and our divine origin. We must “put off the natural man and become a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord.”

The innate instincts we are born with cause the natural man to react quickly to unpleasant situations. Someone insults us, and we feel offended before our religious training tells us we shouldn’t be. If someone hurts us, we want to hurt them. Something scares us, and we want to run or fight. Stimulus, response. Action, reaction.

In the meditation tradition, the natural needs and fears of the ego are called “attachments,” and they are singled out as the principal cause of human suffering and impediment to spiritual progress. The Savior referred to attachments as burdens that cause us to be “heavy laden” and labor under their weight, and he taught us to live without them. He invited the rich young man to unburden himself of his riches. He questions Martha’s need to be “careful about many things.” He said, “Take no thought for the morrow.”

Attachments cause us to live in a state of anxiety and dissatisfaction, because to need something is to fear not getting it.  Meditation is a method of spiritual training that helps us eliminate our attachments and awaken our spirits. Our natural bodies and natural minds are like wild horses, powerful and strong, but potentially dangerous and destructive. Our spirit intelligences are like trainers, sent from the presence of God to guide the evolution of this wild animal until it becomes a temple in which the Spirit can dwell.

At-one-ment

There are many different traditions and approaches to formal meditation, and there is no single “right” way to meditate. I suggest researching different approaches with the spirit of discernment to find what works best for you. Even basic principles of meditation, when applied to everyday spirituality, can be transformative. 

The small space of holy silence cultivated in meditation is a powerful place for the Atonement to work. We become “at-one” with God every time we are mindful of the natural man and return our attention to the Lord’s grace. When we meditate, with our “eye [or attention] single to the glory of God,” our “whole body shall be full of light.” The Atonement can be seen as a kind of burning away of the darker, Natural man energies within our being as we reunite our inner light with the Savior’s light. This process has a self-reinforcing, upward trajectory: “He that receiveth light, and continueth in God, receiveth more light; and that light groweth brighter and brighter until the perfect day.”

This influx of light allows for the flow of grace, wherein we do not check off lists of commandments or become depressed with setbacks or obsessed with perfectionism. In the meditative life our “confidence wax[es] strong in the presence of God” because when we practice abiding in the light for a few minutes every day, then returning to that light every time we wander, the habit will become internalized. This process of sanctification allows the transformation of body and mind until we finally “put off” the natural man and “become a Saint through the atonement of Christ.”

More on Meditation

Mastering meditation is a lifelong pursuit requiring focus, hard work, and understanding. For more on how to find peace and meaning in life and prayer, try searching these additional resources:

Christ-Centered Meditation: Handbook for Spiritual Practice 

This how-to handbook provides the readers with insights and tools to enrich their spiritual practice through “passive” meditative techniques, which involve stilling the conscious mind, and “active” meditative techniques, using guided visualizations and interaction with others. $17.95; Available at Deseret Book.

Simple Steps for More Meaningful Prayer 

Prayer isn’t always easy, but it’s always worth it. Discover nearly one hundred ideas for more powerful prayer, including simple suggestions about how, when, and where we pray; clarifications of the doctrine of prayer; and meditations about the things we pray about. $11.95; Available at Deseret Book.