This week’s edition of Hood Health 101 deals with abstaining and fasting from all things that could potentially take control over our lives
Let’s face it. In this modern society, most of us are living the fast life. Before you know it, tomorrow has come and gone and by the time you figure out how that happened, you’re into the next week. When you lock yourself into this type of life, you are literally running yourself into the ground as my mother used to say. You aren’t giving your body and mental the time to regenerate and flourish. You are basically killing yourself faster and faster everyday. You end up not being able to enjoy the life that you are supposed to be living. It’s good to take a break every now and then.
The type of schedules that many of us are locked into don’t allow for us to run away at the drop of a dime all of the time. Let’s face it; this society requires a lot from people. What we can do, though, is examine how we cope with such a high paced lifestyle. Oftimes, we overindulge in many things as compensation for the speedy living. These things take on lives of their own deteriorating into addictions and full blown vices. They end up lowering our quality of life just as much as the high paced lifestyle. When you take inventory of those things and realize that, it’s time for fasting.
Now fasting for many people involves removing certain things from their life for a period of time. People often first think of food. Many people fast from food during certain hours of the day or certain types of food (sugar, meat, wheat, etc,) for a set amount of days. Other people fast from vices such as recreational stimulants (alcohol, recreational drugs, etc.) or sex. One of the key components of any fasting is to acknowledge that this thing has or has the potential to have total control over your life. With that acknowledgment, the plan is to not let it do so. Though there are many types of fasting I am going to speak of one that doesn’t usually get the same type of shine…the Internet fast.
We are overwhelmed by data. Make no mistake about it. People are consuming more information than at any other point in human history. With that comes another burden. People are comprehending at an all time low rate. They are drunk off of information, yet haven’t progressed to the point of processing the information. If you have had problems checking your phone for social media updates every few minutes or get frustrated when you can’t sign into certain social media networks, you are hooked. And listen; internet addiction is no less real than addiction to any other vice. Just like everything else, we need to let it go at times. We need to disconnect from the internet in order to connect to the world around us (Ironically, you are reading this on the internet). Take a break from the internet. Make it a couple of days. Make it a week. Make it a month. You will be alright. My mother used to always say watch television and don’t let television watch you. She made us look in the television guide and plan what shows we wanted to watch. We weren’t allowed to flip through the channels. When you come back to the internet plan and your engagement with it, make sure you have purpose for being online. If you want “free time” on the internet, plan that stuff also. Make sure that it has a set time limit and doesn’t consume your day. Being on the internet shouldn’t be what you do when you’re bored. Find out why you are bored and pick up a damn hobby. Make some kind of change in the world. Trust me, fasting from the internet will be beneficial for you. The answer to the fast life is the fasting life. Be down.
-Alife Allah
C’BS ALife Allah is the co-editor of the Hood Health Handbook and co-creator of the HoodHealth concept. Check him out at ALifeAllah.com and follow him on twitter @alifeallah IG @Alifeallah
