Fasting and Emotions

When we partake in the practice of fasting, whether for spiritual, medicinal, or political gains, we are invoking a deeply emotional experience. It has long been said that two of the most emotional topics are religion and politics, and fasting has played a prominent role in both.

Before discussing how fasting has stirred up emotions in a religious and political context, it can be helpful to examine why fasting is a fundamentally emotional experience. Stephen Harrod Buhner (2003) detailed the complex and intimate relationship between fasting and emotions, highlighting the cultural component:

Our culture constantly teaches us, and all new generations, that feelings are untrustworthy. In addition, the only feelings that are consistently culturally supported are happy ones. We are rarely supported in letting go and letting ourselves drift down into the feelings that lie below the surface of our social selves. We are rarely encourage to become explorers of our own psyche, to ready ourselves for the most daring exploration of all, that of the inner world in which we live. Fasting opens the doorway to this exploration of the psyche. The feelings that we uncover in such exploration are all important ones. They all exist for a reason. They all possess wisdom and meanings that we need in order to become ourselves, Only in giving up the cultural prohibition of having “bad” feelings can we find out just what those feelings contain. (p. 49)

The door to the psyche is flung open while fasting primarily because of our emotional attachment to food. One of our most dominant beliefs is that we need food. From the day we are born, the desire for food reigns dominant. As newborn infants we immediately seek the love, comfort and warmth of our mothers and we cry for food. The food drive is present from the beginning to the end of life and rarely dissipates. To the degree that our relationship with food operates on an unconscious level, fasting can be difficult. Buhner (2003) asserts, "If you believe that food is love, stopping eating will be experienced by your deepest self as a denial of love" (p. 46). According to Buhner, if we associate food with love and nurturing, fasting will challenge our most fundamental belief systems. For those of us who have unconsciously avoided uncomfortable feelings with food, fasting provides an opportunity to face the pain we have hidden beneath our relationship with it.

Although every human being has a basic need for food, that requirement has a stronger emotional component for those who use food for nurturing and fulfillment. For some of us, food is a way to avoid our unhappiness and dissatisfaction with life. Geneen Roth (1992) explained an imbalanced emotional attachment to food in this way:

We all have broken hearts. Every single one of us has had our heart broken at least once—in our families, from the loss or betrayal of a parent. Some had their hearts broken over and over again in terrible ways . . . We spend the rest of our lives eating or drinking or smoking or working so that we never have to go back there again. Never have to feel the unbearable pain of our broken hearts. (p. 62)

As soon as we become attached to something, we set up a situation where we will eventually have to grieve the loss of it. Because of our attachment to food and the loss of it when we fast, grief is a significant part of fasting. When we are deprived of food, such as during a fast, a grieving process begins. Unresolved grief and trauma surface, demanding resolution. Buhner explained this dynamic and stated,

During fasting, the sensitivity of the body to the world around it increases substantially. Subtle perceptions long hidden under food, television, and daily life begin to be notice again. The touch of the world upon us, communicated through cores of sophisticated emotions that our bodies generate, begins to be felt more strongly each day the fast progresses. (p. 48)

These emotional changes happen when we fast because fasting is a rapidly moving evolution. The fasting mind wraps itself around each and every unresolved loss in an effort to process and release it. As losses are reconciled, the fasting mind examines other attachments to people, places, and things. Each and every emotional attachment is challenged with the potential for reframing the relationship and forming a healthier, more detached perspective. The larger the amount and degree of attachments, the more chaotic this process will become. Although fasting removes the chatter and the clutter, it also creates an internal emotional chaos as the faster asks, "What is the purpose of my life? Why am I here?" According to Buhner (2003),

Deep fasting always involves suffering. It is physically difficult. It is often undertaken because we are suffering in our daily lives. But on a deeper level, fasting reminds us of the suffering that all of us inevitably encounter during our lives" (p.31)

If we try to avoid our feelings with food (or other substances or behaviors), we are attempting to avoid suffering uncomfortable feelings. Suffering is inarguably unpleasant, but the degree to which we are able to feel our suffering is parallel to our ability to feel joy. Fasting is an invitation to suffer in a very real sense, but as Buhner notes, "Paradoxically, in such an act we find new life, new direction and joy" (p. 31).

References
(To view, roll mouse over the "References" heading; to hide, click on the heading)

Adamson, E., & Horning, L. (2002). The complete idiot's guide to fasting. Indianapolis, IN: Alpha.

BBC. (2003, October). Santhara - fasting to death. British Broadcast Corporation. Retrieved October 1, 2009, from http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/
religions/jainism/customs/fasting _2.shtml

Beresford, D., & Maas, P. (1997). Ten men dead: The story of the 1981 Irish hunger strike. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press.

Bishop, K. (1988). Fast by Chavez over pesticides passes 29th day. The New York Times. Retrieved October 1, 2009, from http://www.nytimes.com/
1988/08/16/us/fast-by-chavez- over-pesticides-passes-29th-day.html

Buhner, S. H. (2003). The fasting path: For spiritual, emotional, and physical healing and renewal. New York: Avery Publishing Group.

Chapple, C. K. (2007). Purgation and virtue in Jainism: Toward an ecological ethic. In P. Bilimora, J. Prabhu, & R. Sharma (Eds.), Indian ethics: Classical traditions and contemporary challenges (Vol. 1, pp. 217-227). Burlington, VT: Ashgate.

Chavez, C., Jenson, R., & Hammerback, J. (2002). The words of Cesar Chavez. College Station, TX: Texas A & M University Press.

Chellappa, P., & Ramaraj, R. (2009). Depression, homocysteine concentration, and cardiovascular events. Journal of the American Medical Association, 15,1541-1542.

Cott, A. (1974). Controlled fasting treatment for schizophrenia. Journal of Orthomolecular Psychiatry, 3, 301-311.

Firman, J., & Vargiu, J. G. (1996). Religiousness and spirituality. In S. Boorstien (Eds.), Transpersonal psychotherapy (pp. 117-142). Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.

Flinders, C. L. (1993). Enduring grace: Living portraits of seven women mystics. San Francisco: HarperCollins.

Foster, P. (2006, October). Woman starves herself to death in ancient ritual. Telegraph Media Group. Retrieved October 1, 2009, from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/1530366/ Woman-starves-herself-to-death-in-ancient-ritual.html

Gandhi, M. K. (2001). Non-violent resistance (satyagraha). Mineola, NY: Dover.

Fox News. Fox News defames Irish hungerstriker. (2009). Retrieved October 1, 2009, from http://www.petitiononline.com/
5may1981/petition.html

Goldberg, B., Anderson, J., & Trivieri, L. (1994). Alternative medicine: The definitive guide. Berkeley, CA: Ten Speed Press.

Goldhamer, A. C. (2002). Initial cost of care results in medically supervised water-only fasting for treating high blood pressure and diabetes. The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 6, 696-697.

Goscienski, P. J. (2005). Health secrets of the stone age. Concord, Ontario: Better Life.

Homer. (2007). The iliad and the odyssey. Radford, VA: Wilder Publications.

Jaini, P. (1979). The Jaina path of purification. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

Jonas, B.S., & Lando, J. F. (2000). Negative affect as a prospective risk factor for hypertension. Psychosomatic Medicine, 2, 188-196.

Jorgensen-Earp, C. (1997). The transfiguring sword: The just war of the women's social and political union. Tuscaloosa: AL: The University of Alabama Press.

Kaelber, W. O. (2005). Asceticism. In L. Jones (Ed.), Encyclopedia of religion (Vol.1, pp. 526- 530). New York: Thompson Gale.

Krippner, S., & McIntyre, T. M. (2003). The psychological impact of war trauma on civilians: An international perspective. Westport, CT: Praeger.

Kroeber, A. L. (2006). Handbook of the Indians of California, vol 1. Whitefish, MT: Kessinger.

Laidlaw, J. (2005). A life worth leaving: Fasting to death as telos of a Jain religious life. Economy and Society, 34(2), 178-199.

Milavec, A. (2003). The Didache: Faith, hope, & life of the earliest Christian communities, 50- 70 C.E. Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press.

Muhlestein, J. B., Anderson, J. L., Horne, B. D., Lavasani, F., Maycock, C. A., Bair, T. L., Pearson, R. R., & Carlquist, J. F. (2003). Intermountain Heart Collaborative Study Group. Effect of fasting glucose levels on mortality rate in patients with and without diabetes mellitus and coronary artery disease undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention. American Heart Journal, 2 : 351-358.

Murray, S. A., Huber, R. V., & Mechem, E. (Eds.). (2008). Hammond atlas of world religions: A visual history of our great faiths. Duncan, SC: Hammond World Atlas.

Murray, M., & Pizzorno, J. (1997). Encyclopedia of natural medicine. New York: Three Rivers Press.

Parrinder, G. (1973). Dictionary of non-Christian religions. Philadelphia: Westminster Press.

Rader, R. (2005). Fasting. In L. Jones (Ed.), Encyclopedia of religion (Vol. 5, pp. 2995-2998). New York: Thompson Gale.

Roth, G. (1992). When food is love: Exploring the relationship between eating and intimacy. New York: Plume.

Ryken, L., Wilhoit, J., & Longman, T. (Eds.).(1998). Dictionary of biblical imagery. Westmont, IL: InterVarsity Press.

Shukla, A. (2009). 4,000 Jains end year-long fast. Diligent Media. Retrieved October 1, 2009, from http://www.dnaindia.com/report.
asp?newsid=1251050

Smith, H., & Cousineau, P. (2005). The way things are: Conversations with Huston Smith on the spiritual life. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

Larkspirit.com. The Irish hungerstrikers: A commemorative project. (2009). Retrieved October 1, 2009, from http://larkspirit.com/hungerstrikes/

Toker, S., Shirom, A., & Melamed, S. (2008). Depression and the metabolic syndrome: Gender- dependent associations. Depression and Anxiety, 8, 661-669.

Vandereycken, W. (1994). From fasting saints to anorexic girls: The history of self-starvation. Washington Square, NY: New York University Press.

Webster, H. (1973). Fasting. In S. Mathews & G. B. Smith (Eds.), A dictionary of religion and ethics (pp. 164). London: Gale Research Company.