On Tuesday I shared with you guys that I’m doing a 7-day fast. That means 7 full days of nothing but sea salt, water and black coffee. If you have questions about fasting, definitely check out the episodes of the podcast I mentioned in that post.
If you’d rather listen to this post than read it, please click play. Otherwise, keep reading below.
When I made the decision to do this fast, I had to think about what I’d include and exclude. For example, was I going to drink coffee? Yes. Black coffee is definitely included. But another interesting thing made the list of inclusions:
Joy.
I know, it sounds so cheesy but hear me out.
When I did my 5 day fast last year, I very much made myself a victim of it. I went into it with doubt and dread. Though I made the choice to do it and could absolutely have chosen to not do it, I was totally in victim mode.
I complained about being hungry. I complained about being tired. I complained about being grumpy and lacking focus. I complained about seeing food pictures online.
There was zero joy.
And honestly, I think a lot of us go through life that way.
We complain about our jobs. We complain about responsibilities we took on by choice. We complain when we’re single and we complain when we’re in a relationship. We complain about food. We complain when we’re hungry and we complain when we’re stuffed. We complain about our bodies. We complain when we’re tired and also when we overslept. We complain about other people, even people we love and have in our lives by choice!
It’s kind of exhausting. It’s exhausting to be the complainer and exhausting to listen to others complain.
We’re a victim of our own circumstances – circumstances we created. We’ve turned our blessings into burdens and become accustomed to participating more in our problems than in solutions to our problems.
So. I choose joy.
I choose to be joyful in this fast. I choose to be joyful as I go through my work day. I choose to be joyful as I respond to emails and joyful as I update my accounting records.
I chose to do this fast. I can choose not to at any time. I refuse to make myself a victim of my choices and circumstances.
If I don’t like something, I’ll participate in the solution. Otherwise, I choose joy.
I hope you will, too.