Why Do We Fast?
In India, we celebrate the festival of
It is believed that keeping a fast is not just a physical discipline, but it can be a spiritual feast too. Fasting is the willing reduction or absence of some or all kinds of food or liquids.
In India, fasting is of great significance in the Spiritual sense too. It is considered as a way or prayer to God.
During Navratri, people fast for 8 to 9 days regularly to worship or please the Goddess. Generally, people fast occasionally during a month or even once every week.
There are many beneficial effects of fasting not only on the body but also on the mind. Paramahansa Yogananda says, — “you, the soul are far more than the perishable body of flesh. while keeping a fast, you discover, what is sustaining you the cosmic energy or the internal prana in the body that lies within”.
Fasting is a discipline and the way of telling your body and mind that we still have control over it. The main reason for obesity is unhealthy eating patterns. We get swayed by the taste of mouthwatering desserts and other food items. This leads to creating health hazards for us.
Here are the most significant benefits of fasting:
- keeping a fast can help you in the cleansing and detoxification of the body.
- It can also help in strengthening the immune system and keep a check on blood sugar levels.
- It enhances the rate of metabolism.
- It creates a strong willingness in an individual and helps to attain the wholeness at the Spiritual level.
- Fasting or intermittent calorie restriction may affect cancer and tumour development, but it is not currently used as a form of treating cancer.
- Fasting improves alertness, Mood, and subjective feelings of well being.
- It helps in dealing with symptoms of depression.
- Fasting also helps in weight loss, but this criterion has not been prescribed by doctors, is it can lead to deprivation of many essential nutrients, which are required for a healthy body.
- while keeping a fast, religiously, it is believed that we transmit our energies on a higher level while praying and thus, we begin to realise that we are living in cosmic energy and our body becomes the magnet.
- Astrologers believe people should go on a fast for at least one day in a week. And they believe, if the day of fast is chosen according to a native’s own Sun Sign then it can create miracles.
- The whole process gives you intense inner strength, patience,
self confidence and positive energy.
Read Also: What Fasting Does To Your Body