I’ve been reminded the last 7 days of just how significant it is to be conscious of how major a role the mind plays in our life. I have been engaged in a cleansing fast ( The Master Cleanser  ) during this time. I have done the fast previously, in an attempt to alleviate symptoms of Crohn’s Disease (20 years’ symptom free). The fast is composed of a lemonade, with limes/lemons, pure maple syrup, cayenne, and water, along with some natural cleansing agents. This is all that is consumed for a minimum of 10 days. You go through various stages of discomfort, and through my experiences of the past doing this, they can vary.  *** I do not consider this a diet or do it for weight loss.  I choose to do this fast, as a reset button for my body, offering my machine the opportunity to work its magic***

During this experience, I went through long-lasting body aches and about 4 days of sleeplessness, no doubt due to the abuse of caffeine over the last 9 or so years since the last time I engaged with the fast.  As these subsided, on came nausea and massive headaches. Now, at this point, after 7 days, I have some lethargy from lack of sleep, but mostly it’s a vary of discomfort, but at a much less acute nature as the first 5 to 6 days.

This all sounds like torture, I am sure, as folks in my circle that know what I am doing, have expressed.  Yet, it is a good reminder, to me, how important it is to be wary of the mind and its power over our daily lives.  For those that know me, I have practiced meditation for some time.  I have come to understand that meditation is a tool, for the taming of the mind. If developed properly, it can be used to help tame one’s life.  For the mind, is that which we define as “I”, that looks at this fast as a “torture”!  During this time, I have been able to overcome, fairly peacefully, the challenges I have encountered.  The training I have done over these many years, afforded me the ability to not give importance to these feelings, yet to control the trained desire to react.  This has not been the case in the past.    I came to observe that it really is as simple as how I choose to react to these feelings of discomfort.  Our mind is trained to react in fear, to react in desperation, to react in a desire for sympathy, this is the nature of the mind at this point in time.  Ultimately, through all of this drama, at the root of the mind is our true self, that has the ability to alter this habit of reaction.  Throughout this entire time, I have been able to recognize that former pattern of reaction as it surfaces, let it go, and smile as I go through the varied discomforts.

It has been such a liberating experience.  The statement, mind over matter is a valid statement, but maybe not always in the manner it is understood.  It is the mind that defines the matter, yet it is our history of the mind reacting that is in the current state of control, or lack thereof for that matter.  Ultimately, it is at the root of the mind that one is able to redefine how to meander through life.  Meditation is a tool that allows you to get back to this root.

Be Happy…Have Faith….words that have been spoken for millennium, these are the expression at the root of the mind.  For, it is Faith that creates the proper atmosphere needed to tame the fickle mind, whose desire is to attach itself to every feeling, every thought, every action, and is the catalyst for letting go of these things.    It is a Happy state of mind that allows one to redefine the reaction of feeling upon doing so, to Be Happy..to be at peace, amongst any stimulus, any experience. Once I truly let go, once I truly eradicate this root, this habit of reaction, I have a clean slate, a new seed, and therefore I have to opportunity to find true happiness, which is the happiness at the source, the ultimate choice to “BE HAPPY”.   Create a new habit at the source, to BE HAPPY, to BE PEACEFUL and it allows one to truly understand the nature of compassion with its objective beauty.   So, start letting go of the I, experience how it is the “me” which defines “you” by attaching itself to all of these feelings, thoughts and actions.  For this is the culprit that is the current commander of your mind, the current define of those habits, the current dictator of your life.  Let go of that “I” and smile….and BE HAPPY!!!!