'mind fat' and fasting
All is Change
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: Australia
Posts: 1,284
'mind fat' and fasting
Think of it this way: when you are fasting, the body starts to consume stored food. If you keep on fasting a time will come when all the food stored in the body is consumed.
Similarly when you put up with the cravings, initially there is an intense flood of the same feelings. When you keep on putting up with them a time will come when they are all consumed.
How you put up with them matters.
If you crave for something to not be, you are craving. This adds to the store of cravings. You're feeding.
If you crave for something to be that is not, you are craving. This adds to the store of craving. You're feeding.
In those moments when you are just observing the cravings, saying "at the moment there are cravings in me" you are not adding to the store of cravings. You are fasting. The old store of cravings is being emptied, consumed, just like body fat being consumed when fasting, 'mind fat' is consumed when you are just observing it with a balanced mind.
A point I'm making is that in time the cravings do pass. Be patient and tolerant of all the crap that comes up. Mind fat that is released by fasting. Cravings that come up by just observing the result of not drinking.
Be Patient. It takes time.
Similarly when you put up with the cravings, initially there is an intense flood of the same feelings. When you keep on putting up with them a time will come when they are all consumed.
How you put up with them matters.
If you crave for something to not be, you are craving. This adds to the store of cravings. You're feeding.
If you crave for something to be that is not, you are craving. This adds to the store of craving. You're feeding.
In those moments when you are just observing the cravings, saying "at the moment there are cravings in me" you are not adding to the store of cravings. You are fasting. The old store of cravings is being emptied, consumed, just like body fat being consumed when fasting, 'mind fat' is consumed when you are just observing it with a balanced mind.
A point I'm making is that in time the cravings do pass. Be patient and tolerant of all the crap that comes up. Mind fat that is released by fasting. Cravings that come up by just observing the result of not drinking.
Be Patient. It takes time.
Member
Join Date: Aug 2019
Posts: 87
I like the term 'mind fat' and what you say is very true. Mindfulness is be very therapeutic.
I listen to a lot of mindfulness and non-duality teachers on YouTube and books. The way they suggest dealing with anxiety and depression is exactly as you describe. Watch them from afar, almost as if you were observing something external to yourself. They eventually wither away and die.
Since our cravings, I believe, are a longing to stop the pain and anxiety, they can be dealt with the same along with the anxiety that causes them.
SC
I listen to a lot of mindfulness and non-duality teachers on YouTube and books. The way they suggest dealing with anxiety and depression is exactly as you describe. Watch them from afar, almost as if you were observing something external to yourself. They eventually wither away and die.
Since our cravings, I believe, are a longing to stop the pain and anxiety, they can be dealt with the same along with the anxiety that causes them.
SC
All is Change
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: Australia
Posts: 1,284
Contemplate calm. Do calming things. Let go of exercise. Shift to gentle yoga. Find some guided mindfulness meditation. Set up a doable routine.
Consider if these difficulties are like the impurities that have been stored in the 'mind-fat cells' and are now being released. In other words, there is nothing wrong. This is what the process of getting well sometimes feels like.
You are a doctor. Someone comes to you with a boil in the leg. It's close to bursting. They are very distressed. You know it's just a matter of waiting calmly. It bursts and all sorts of yukky stuff come out but the pressure is gone. Clean up. The pain is gone and the wound heals.
In this way the boil is in your heart. You are your own doctor. Be gentle and patent. Be happy.
All is Change
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: Australia
Posts: 1,284
A deeper truth is that we react with ill-will to a painful feeling. It is a habit to not want to feel something unpleasant. When an unpleasant feeling arises within, for whatever reason, we react against that. That habitual reaction accumulates to become hate.
The habit then is to direct that hatred to something external to self. What starts as an unpleasant feeling leads to hating someone. That easily becomes guilt and selfhate which can lead to selfharm like drinking, or it leads to obsessively doing something to relieve the feelings.
The deeper truth is that a way needs to be found to positively manage the unpleasant feelings that happen inside ones self. Everything else flows from that. There will be no need for hitting out, guilt or self hatred. Instead there will be calm, happiness and confidence.
The way is to work simple things like calm, honour, honesty, kindness, generosity into all parts of life. In doing so
1. we are confronted with the things that are a hindrance like pain, ill will, anxiety and so on.
2. as we do more and more good things we are not adding to things to feel bad about in the future and we are accumulating things that are good to feel about in the future.
The habit becomes to respond to unpleasant feeling with compassion.
This is where the idea of mind fat comes in. Basically we are denying food to the hate cells so all the stored impurities in the hate cells are released. The correct thing to do is to wait patiently while they are purged, cleansed from the system.
A way to wait is to meditate.
The habit then is to direct that hatred to something external to self. What starts as an unpleasant feeling leads to hating someone. That easily becomes guilt and selfhate which can lead to selfharm like drinking, or it leads to obsessively doing something to relieve the feelings.
The deeper truth is that a way needs to be found to positively manage the unpleasant feelings that happen inside ones self. Everything else flows from that. There will be no need for hitting out, guilt or self hatred. Instead there will be calm, happiness and confidence.
The way is to work simple things like calm, honour, honesty, kindness, generosity into all parts of life. In doing so
1. we are confronted with the things that are a hindrance like pain, ill will, anxiety and so on.
2. as we do more and more good things we are not adding to things to feel bad about in the future and we are accumulating things that are good to feel about in the future.
The habit becomes to respond to unpleasant feeling with compassion.
This is where the idea of mind fat comes in. Basically we are denying food to the hate cells so all the stored impurities in the hate cells are released. The correct thing to do is to wait patiently while they are purged, cleansed from the system.
A way to wait is to meditate.
Member
Join Date: May 2017
Posts: 1,602
Originally Posted by Grymt 
A deeper truth is that we react with ill-will to a painful feeling. It is a habit to not want to feel something unpleasant. When an unpleasant feeling arises within, for whatever reason, we react against that. That habitual reaction accumulates to become hate.
The habit then is to direct that hatred to something external to self. What starts as an unpleasant feeling leads to hating someone. That easily becomes guilt and selfhate which can lead to selfharm like drinking, or it leads to obsessively doing something to relieve the feelings.
The deeper truth is that a way needs to be found to positively manage the unpleasant feelings that happen inside ones self. Everything else flows from that. There will be no need for hitting out, guilt or self hatred. Instead there will be calm, happiness and confidence.
The way is to work simple things like calm, honour, honesty, kindness, generosity into all parts of life. In doing so
1. we are confronted with the things that are a hindrance like pain, ill will, anxiety and so on.
2. as we do more and more good things we are not adding to things to feel bad about in the future and we are accumulating things that are good to feel about in the future.
The habit becomes to respond to unpleasant feeling with compassion.
This is where the idea of mind fat comes in. Basically we are denying food to the hate cells so all the stored impurities in the hate cells are released. The correct thing to do is to wait patiently while they are purged, cleansed from the system.
A way to wait is to meditate.
The habit then is to direct that hatred to something external to self. What starts as an unpleasant feeling leads to hating someone. That easily becomes guilt and selfhate which can lead to selfharm like drinking, or it leads to obsessively doing something to relieve the feelings.
The deeper truth is that a way needs to be found to positively manage the unpleasant feelings that happen inside ones self. Everything else flows from that. There will be no need for hitting out, guilt or self hatred. Instead there will be calm, happiness and confidence.
The way is to work simple things like calm, honour, honesty, kindness, generosity into all parts of life. In doing so
1. we are confronted with the things that are a hindrance like pain, ill will, anxiety and so on.
2. as we do more and more good things we are not adding to things to feel bad about in the future and we are accumulating things that are good to feel about in the future.
The habit becomes to respond to unpleasant feeling with compassion.
This is where the idea of mind fat comes in. Basically we are denying food to the hate cells so all the stored impurities in the hate cells are released. The correct thing to do is to wait patiently while they are purged, cleansed from the system.
A way to wait is to meditate.
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