The Best Time to Fast ?
There is a lot to be said for ripeness. Readiness. A time that is right for you.
But don't let that idea get in your way. Don't keep putting it off because its not quite the perfect time yet. It will never be perfect - there will always be some other thing you can be doing, somewhere else to go, and something different to spend your money on.
The best time to plant an orchard is 25 years ago.
The second best time is now...
In the same way, you wish you had done a retreat last year, and the year before, so get on it now, before you wish next year that you had done it this year !
And depending on which season you chose to join us in, there are all manner of delights awaiting you.
Spring
An aptly named time for unfolding, unfurling, reaching, stretching and expanding.
The effect of fasting during the spring is one of shaking off that winter malaise and its associated weight - both physically and mentally.
A thinning of the blood after the heavier foods of winter, and a subsequent thinning of the body. The archetypal ‘spring clean’.
During fasts at this time, there is more consideration for how to burst forth into life with our best foot forward for the year.
Summer
The full-on blaze of life at its most productive and abundant. A time to shine.
Fasts at this time see much socialising, people tend to be more active that at other times, drawing more upon the buzz of life going on around them.
Despite the slow paced retreat atmosphere, there is a vibrancy in the air, and people tend to stay upward and outward, more connected to each other, and to the activities offered.
Autumn
It’s called ‘fall’ for a reason, a time for letting things go.
We see a more inward-looking mood on retreat at this time.
People are more considered in themselves and looking to purge their lives of things that no longer serve them.
A sense of things cooling and condensing. We have the last of the UK’s summer afterglow (and often the most reliable weather)
Winter
Our most hibernatory stage of the year, when folk are most subdued.
The perfect time for a more contemplative retreat - for those who have decisions that need deep consideration, and deep rest.
We see a greater tendency for people to fully retreat, becoming more individual and spend more time in their rooms - leaving the sociability of evening movies, and chatting around the communal room for the solace of their own being.
All the seasons have their merits, and you may not know your reasons for joining a retreat until you are there, and you may not notice the effect of these seasonal tides upon you until you have been to a few retreats at different times of the year.
But most people who come to a retreat at a given season cannot imagine ever wanting to come at a different one.
“How can people fast in the winter” I hear, whilst our guests lay chatting in the sun in July. or “I just wouldn’t feel so refreshed if I spent so much time with people” when people emerge from their rooms at the end of their retreat in winter…
Truth be told, all seasons contain all those energies, and deep rest or sociability are available on each retreat, but it is in the overall group that we see the effect of the seasons.
So, come and get it. Don't wait for some other time that might be more appropriate.
There is much to learn in any moment...
And you want optimum health right now, don't you ? Or can it wait another year ?
Give us a call before another season slips past - 01822 25 90 01 ;-)
Resources
All you need to know about water fasting by Claire Sissons in Medical News Today - 20 March 2018
Follow-up of water-only fasting and an exclusively plant food diet in the management of stage IIIa, low-grade follicular lymphoma. by Myers TR1, Zittel M1, Goldhamer AC2.
Detox Diets: Cleansing the Body : Spring Cleaning By Jeanie Lerche Davis - www.webmd.com