Filled Up Running on Empty
A fasted reflection on the power of the ritual
Story Time on a Theme
I had a plan, but then life got in the way.
I had a great story to tell about the great quote I selected to animate this week’s article themes. But then life made a different story emerge.
See, I’m 35 hours into a 36 hour fast as I write this. My kids are going to be awake soon and I’m the only parent in the house.
But a funny thing happens, instead of sitting down to write the article that was in my head yesterday I’m going to write the article that’s on my heart today.
I challenged everyone in The Temple, my group coaching community, to a 36 hour fast as our first group challenge on our first cohort call of the year last Thursday.
Most have already completed it, some will finish with me today, and others will push till our next call tomorrow.
Observing myself and how each individual has taken on this challenge gives me a new perspective on the Michael Novak quote I shared in yesterday’s article
“If you give your heart to the ritual, it’s effects upon your inner life can be far reaching.”
I’ve found this to be quite true of this fasting experience.
Fasting for me is not difficult, I do it every day for 16-20 hours. Extending to a 36 hour fast wasn’t much of an effort, it’s still tiring, but it’s not this far reaching experience that Novak is intimating.
For me, it’s much more routine that ritual.
But for some in the group, it was pure ritual.
One of my guys used this opportunity to embody the atonement that accompanies the Jewish fast at Yom Kippur. In our group call, I brought up the Old Testament ideal of ‘Afflicting the Soul’ that is to deny bodily comfort in pursuit of spiritual purity.
He took on the challenge with that heartstance, full in, and ended up pushing his fast all the way to 48 hours.
Another guy is on a spiritual journey of his own, trying to find a home and make sense of how he can connect with the divine. He used the fast to deeply interrogate himself, how his ego trips him up, and how he can truly find contentment in the action and not bask in the outcome or achievement.
Both of these guys are examples of giving your heart fully into the ritual. And lo and behold, their inner worlds are being profoundly affected by what they are choosing to endure through the body.
For me, it’s not that my heart isn’t in the fast, but it is for different purposes. As the leader of the group, my heart is aimed at supporting and guiding others at this moment, it’s not for my own journey. So I can’t expect to receive the same transformations of my inner world when my heart isn’t fully in it like their is.
I will find my transformation when it’s time, when I’ve turned leading groups itself into a ritual, for now it’s still my first time so we aren’t there yet.
What this should speak to you ins the power of a community to aim you properly. That you need a support system to fully give into a ritual. This is why religious people gather in congregations and pray together.
It’s the same for physical challenge, which when aimed at our spiritual growth takes on a ritualistic nature, just as prayer and sacraments provide for religion.
It’s why so many fail at finding consistency in fitness.
No ritual
No meaning
No will to strive
No endurance to keep going
But if you give yourself over to a ritual, a routine with deeply attached meaning, well then, fitness can transform your inner world profoundly.
You don’t need to do it alone either, if you’re interested in joining the Temple and giving yourself to a community that wants to see you exceed your potential in body, mind, and spirit, we are ready to open our hearts to you.
Send me a reply of use the button below to message me and let’s start winning together through the power of ritual.
Happy Training Team