Why I’ve Decided to Do a Week-Long Negativity Fast

Last week, a friend and I were sitting having coffee. He was telling me about a week-long fast that he was doing.

My friend was fasting from eating food to give his body time and space to clean out existing toxins polluting his body. He does this fast twice a year. And it seems to work for him as he is a very healthy sixty year-old.

I spent the weekend thinking about this practice as well as his commitment to complete his fast. The reality is that giving-up food isn’t easy, especially for an entire week. Plenty swear by doing so, however, fasting to optimize their physical health.

It made me contemplate the prospect of engaging in an alternate type of fast to optimize my mental, emotional health — fasting from negative influence. I began to consider how a week-long fast from the negative influences bombarding us daily would renew my perspective and vigor for life.

Frankly, I could feel my resistance to this negativity waning. My natural optimism wasn’t what it used to be. I’ve also been coping with stomach issues and I have a feeling the two are connected. The break from negativity was long overdue.

Thus, for seven days, I’ve decided to remove from my life damaging social media influences, distressing newscasts and stories, disturbing voices and relationships, and harmful self-thoughts as actively as possible. As a commentary writer, I am also taking a hiatus from any commentary that requires me to criticize another.

Instead of giving away my power, joy, and the beauty in life that I am now missing due to these negative influences overwhelming me, I am choosing to take it all back. I’m choosing me, my mental health and my emotional state first. And I have invited others on Tiktok to join me in this fast. Plenty are actually hopping on board, so distraught are they too but needing a community to do it with.

Already, I can see a huge difference in the amount of free time that I have on my hands. I never realized before how much time negativity was stealing from my days.

I no longer choose to add my energy to fuel the mess our world finds itself in. I’d much rather focus on mentoring my own peace-of-mind and help others do the same. I believe that is the path to world peace anyway, not the negativity that we are all caught up in. If you want peace, you must sow peace first.

The negative influences are anything but. I refuse to be forced into servitude for a minimum of 7 days. Maybe longer.

I welcome anyone who would like to join me in the needed break. I believe what we will find will be immensely clarifying, freeing, and joyful. Fast and take your power back.

You can always return to the negative influences after the fact. It will all still be there. But maybe, you just won’t want to–relinquishing the toxins one smile at a time and partaking in a healthier, more positive tomorrow, individually and as a whole.

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This post was previously published on medium.com.

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From The Good Men Project on Medium

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