Fasting: A Path To Mental And Physical Transcendence | Phil Sanderson | TEDxBeaconStreet

hi my name is phil sanderson and i'm going to talk today about my philosophy on fasting so have you ever been stressed out about bad internet connectivity we all have you don't have to be embarrassed about having firstworldproblems the bottom line is we live in a first world society we've got plenty of running water food and a lot of first word luxuries but what if we took away some of these first world luxuries I think it'd be helpful because the accumulation of our first world problems plus the daily stresses that we go through tend to clutter our minds and make it hard for us to advance as humans and reach our full potential and how do we reach our full potential well Maslow outlined these needs the five hierarchy of needs in the 1940s which need to be completed sequentially in order to achieve self-actualization or true potential so the first level of needs is physiological first we need food water air shelter so forth then we need security financial security personal health security and so forth the next level is social we need show love and feel sense of belonging in our community and then we need a self-centered self-esteem need to be respected by others to reach the top of the pyramid so as you can see we need to satisfy these physiological needs first and also to survive but what if we took away one of these physiological needs in order to give ourselves a perspective on the whole pyramid to reach the top it's not realistic to take away water and air for that long of a period of time and sure we could sleep below the highway and go to work the next day taking away shelter but that's too hard it's just not realistic but we can take away food and I think that fasting for an extended period of time can give us a perspective on what we need to self-actualize and be the best person that we can be now fasting is not a new concept it's been used for thousands of years among religions right think about the Jews and Yom Kippur they fast for atonement Muslims do the same thing in Ramadan also to show their devotion to Allah and Buddhist fast as well for sense of heightened enlightenment fasting has also been used for political protests think of Gandhi and more recently it's been used for medical purposes to help treat cancer and Alzheimer's and other types of illnesses so from religions to medical purposes fasting has been used to reach a heightened state of appreciation I do the same thing for fasting so every year I fast for seven days I don't eat any food I go through a Master Cleanse and the Master Cleanse has been around for 75 years it's a recipe which consists of water lemon juice cayenne pepper and maple syrup I drink as much of it as I can and I get about 600 calories a day and also as the name suggests it's got cleansing purposes but I eat a lot of food I work out an hour and a half a day and as was mentioned I run ultra marathons so when I'm training for an ultra I'm burning about 3 to 4,000 calories a day so not eating for a week is really really hard but I do it for three main reasons one for the sense of accomplishment finishing an ultra marathon is like finishing a race I also hit the reset button on all my bad eating habits we all have them and put it all in perspective and finally I reach a heightened state of mental and physical acuteness and aware and awareness now to be able to do this I set myself up for success so I make sure I'm not traveling for the week you really can't travel with liquids and it's too hard you have to have these around you at all times I also reduce my physical exertion to about 20 minutes of cardio a day then I start on a Monday so that I finish on a Saturday on the sunday because you're not 100% there in the last few days to be honest and I'm a venture capitalist as was mentioned and I don't want to be making bad business decisions with other people's money also I try to avoid packing my schedule with business breakfasts lunches and dinners it's hard to avoid but I try that what's really important I make sure I can phone a friend I do it with a friend so that we can rely on each other during the hard times and tough periods and then finally I make as much of the solution as I can in advance so there's no excuse for not drinking so then I start my fast day one is clearly the hardest and many of us have fasted in the past you know what it feels like during breakfast lunch and dinner you have huge hunger pains and your body saying feed me I'm hungry and it hurts but by day two I'm hitting my stride I feel really good I've been drinking throughout the day and I have a very strong sense of my body and what it needs in my metabolism this is intensely felt when I go to bed on the second night I lie down to go to sleep I can literally feel my metabolism settling down into my body and I'm at peace it's a best sleep I have all year on the third day in the morning when I wake up I'm not hungry at all I take a shower I get dressed I brushed my teeth and all of a sudden I can feel a switch go off my body out of nowhere and it says I need fuel I need calories and then I start to drink I know exactly what my body needs and when speaking of bodily functions I go to the bathroom all day you can't avoid it I'm drinking two to three gallons a day but one time during the fast I'll go number two and that's when all the junk that sits in my intestines gets flushed out of my body and that's part of the cleanse on day four and five I have some some rough parts it gets really really hard when I don't drink enough in advance I bonk which is an athletic term for just getting lightheaded and low low sugar and those points I just need to recover and start drinking I get headaches and the back of my throat is killing me because of the acidity of the lemon juice that's why I swap in some lime juice which is less acidic but usually during those days I'll call a friend and say I'm done it's been five days I'm out I can't do it anymore it's hurts and my friend tells me what I already know and what I need to hear which is keep going you can do this you'll be happy that you did which is really helpful also on day six I'm starting to really feel the the the hurt of seeing food and especially smelling food I can't avoid business lunches in my industry I'll go to a fancy restaurant some of eating chicken cordon bleu and lobster salad and I'll be here there with my my knowledge in bottle of yellow and brown solution and just drinking away and people are laughing at me but there'll always be people saying what day are you want and this is a pretty wide widely spread I've used the Master Cleanse then when I go into day seven I feel great I mean I mentioned feeling physically aware of my entire body but I have a mental acuteness that's unlike anything else I'm aware of everything around me it's a real state of enlightenment I'm actually sad it's about to end at that point I also lose a lot of weight I've lost about ten pounds at that point which I don't really have but you know the fast burns muscle but first fat then muscle and then and then tissue so you really I can't go beyond ten days some people do this for thirty days seven days is right for me and it's an incredible feeling of spirituality that I have go I feel that going into the eighth day and on that day I have a breakfast typical for me we have chicken so I have eggs for my chickens I live in Marin County so - it's a California thing we have turkey bacon and then I'll have some toast and I will appreciate every morsel that goes into my mouth it's an incredible it's a best meal I ever have and I know my body needs food and I need to feed my body and I know when I need to eat food and I had that feeling for the next two to three months I don't stack or graze like I normally do I'll walk by our snack room or Starbucks and say I don't need food right now I don't need that snack of chocolate and and it's super helpful to have that' tunas in my body so last year I spoke about the B hag or big hairy audacious goal of running a hundred mile race on no training using entrepreneurial principles you can find that on my blog at SF VC calm but that's a pretty unrealistic goal to be honest right I mean who can run a hundred mile race who really wants to I'm I admit I'm a little crazy to do it but I love doing that but fasting is something that we can all do and it can change our lives you know every year I fast for seven days it's incredibly hard but I reach a heightened state of physical mental and spiritual awareness and fasting is a regular part of my diet of personal growth and it can be for yours as well thank you

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 1,385,684

Rating: 4.4507027 out of 5

Keywords: TEDxTalks, English, United States, Health, Food, Personal growth

Id: IdQgiTPiRYo

Length: 9min 11sec (551 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 23 2015

Reddit Comments

[u/Aretha]

noped out at master cleanse