Getting Started on Fasting....

**Talk on Fasting this Sunday at West Cork Hotel in Skibbereen, West Cork 

After my posts yesterday….I had quite a few questions and inquiries about fasting. So, I wanted to take a bit of time to answer the most important thing about getting on the road to better health; how to get started fasting.

Fasting, by the way, is one of my top 3 ways of all time, that have changed my life over the years and I highly recommend it to anyone. My other two are Oil pulling (extensive use of essential oils for healing inside and out) and deciding to be completely natural in my health & healing approach to all our physical, emotional, spiritual and energetic needs (read no drugs, no Night Shades & no chemicals).

My own personal journey with fasting started out officially in 2001 – when I embarked on a 72 hour water/herbal tea fast after doing 30 days intensive detox diet. I felt terrific after that initial experience and it was a game changer for me.

Since then, I consider fasting an integral part of any healthy lifestyle, weight loss, healing, cleansing, detox approach to eating, because our gut flora needs periods of food, feasting and fasting. That's right, you 'need' and benefit from periods of no food and have actually a digestive system geared for it.

It really is this simple.

So now, back to the topic at hand – how does one get started fasting?

Of course, the easiest and best way to get started is to pick a day and then just jump in! That’s basically what I did – I woke up one morning, said ‘enough of this’ and decided to fast again. I took in water, herbal teas, lemon juice and maple syrup, mainly, in those days.

However, you can also prepare yourself a little bit by doing several mini-fasts of 24 hours, then 48 hours, 72 hours and so forth. I’ve done those as well. Pre-planning Mondays for example, each week to give your system a break and only drink juices, smoothies, herbal teas or even water also works.

Remember, water (chemical free) is great!!! It is the single most nourishing liquid on this planet and yes, I have done water fasts….last year we did 30 days parasite cleanse on water (apparently the only real way to get rid of the nastiest ones). Grueling – but again, another huge shift for me, and something I am pleased to have done. 

Have I mentioned I did my Masters thesis for Exercise & Nutrition Science on the study of water?  (don't get me started on water LOL). We need water far more then we need food, that should tell you something really important right there - water heals, clears, cleans and shifts energy.  

To get started on your fast – follow these steps:

1. Pick a day but don’t over plan it, or make it that Tuesday, 3 weeks from tomorrow. Really, just jump in, where you are, with what you’ve got going on right now.

2. Pick up a couple of fasting helpers….I wish I knew all the little things that make fasting so much easier, years ago. I did it anyway, but now it’s that much better with my Rebel Juices (fermented probiotic drinks), immune boosting, detoxing and nourishing Herbal Tea Blends and Rebel Foods Tinctures.

3. Think about a goal/aim/purpose or reason why you need to fast and have that as an incentive. It could be something material such as a new iPad or a goal for your job, health, relationship, weight loss, writing – the lists are endless. Fasting heals inflammation rapidly by the way.

4. Get a journal and do some writing while you fast or have a project ready such as closets to be cleaned, an office to be sorted or something to keep you busy – you will have time & energy to do things like never before.

5. Fasting has a unique Spiritual element that can only be compared to being One with Nature, walking with gods and opening up inwardly like never before. Be prepared to get to know yourself on a whole new level. 

And that’s about it! The important thing here – is to fast while you are living your life, going on a ‘retreat’ from the world sounds lovely, but hardly practical. So carry on with your normal activities – we exercise, work, and do all the things that we normally do while fasting – only with a little more focus! LOL

Lastly, make no apologies for choosing to detox, heal and move forward with your life (I don’t feel the need to tell everyone I am fasting) nor do I explain my reasons if people comment in a negative way.  

I’m doing what I need to do. Moving right along….

April  

I was so impressed with fasting - I wrote a book about it! The Pagan Diet is about my life changing experiences 

Feeling A Little Stuck? 2014 - A Year for Change…..Class & Course Dates

Energy Blocks

I just realized something really important – I am having a hard time thinking about, moving and gearing up for 2014. It’s as if this next year is either not coming (it is! LOL) or there is a huge energy block surfacing for me. 

I can’t seem to get dates in my mind or anything….it’s as if  a door is closed and needs to be pushed (or kicked) open. Yet I love this feeling right now because that is what I am cleansing, clearing and fasting for!

So what am I doing to combat this energy block? I am Closing Energy Leaks© of course, exercising, fasting and pushing myself in every way that I can think of to get that ‘onwards and upwards’ feeling back again. 

But today has been a difficult day, even the weather outside is nasty – it’s wet, windy and wild out there, with the air kicking up soggy leaves and blowing them around. The kind of day where you run from one building to the other, shielding your face from the sting of the rain and every trip outside has you standing next to the stove for half an hour.

A day for change.

If you are also ready for something better, something deeper and more then you feel your life is bringing you right now – perhaps it’s time to unblock 2014 for yourself! Plan to come out to one of my Winter classes to get your life back on track and discover a deeper spiritual connection.

January Rebel Foods Cookery Class Sunday 12 January 2014 – simple healthy meals & breads for winter €35 11am to 3pm or finish, Leap, West Cork

Energy Class – session 2 (anyone can join at any time) Working Through the Energy Blocks €10 each evening Tuesdays at 7pm Leap, West Cork starts 14th January 2014 runs for 6 or 7 weeks.

Fasting & Detox for Health, Healing or Weight Loss – Eat Like a Pagan 9th January 7pm €20 – includes tastings of detox juices, cleasing teas and fermented juices – Eat Like A Pagan© book on sale on the night 

Closing Energy Leaks© full day intensive workshop for those who work with energy healing, hands on healing, light workers, therapists etc. – Health & Safety of the Energy Worker €90 includes lunch, snacks – please do not bring food due to the energy work being done on this day.  Sunday 10am to 4:30pm (includes book) 26th January 2014 

to reserve your place please book directly with April on 087 2361616 or email info@aprildanann.com 

Looking forward to working with you in 2014! 

April

From little Acorns great things grow!

Spiritual Detox

Spiritual detox is a term that I have been mulling over for quite some time - long before I even had much of an idea where this path would take me. I remember as recently as a year ago, trying to get at buried toxins that just seemed to be far more stuck than others and wondering why this was so.

Of course as time moved on and I kept moving forward with the Master Cleanses and fasting, I moved far more deeply into my own body than I ever have before. The one thing that became clear to me ( I have mentioned it here several times) is that these wounds of the spirit are by far the most profound.

Along with these wounds, like a poison arrow, there are toxins and built up debris that must be moved out in order to heal and restore ultimately moving on from spiritual resistance. All of this makes perfect sense and this is precisely the sort of material a good detox will remove. However, there are other issues of the spirit at work here and this is what I would like to talk about.

Firstly, how many of us (for a long time, me as well) would stay in a  negative environment, relationship, situation waiting for the 'signal' or sign or some indication that the lesson was over - meaning that we could now move on. Most likely only to repeat this all over again.

Secondly, are there still those out there walking and talking the language of spirituality, while readily sacrificing their dreams, hopes, desires, purposes and ultimately souls - believing that to give so much of the self away is part of what is asked of us? That this path will cost us absolutely everything, with nothing left over for us?

I am asking just these two simple questions because for some reason, there seems to be a lot of wrong information floating around about exactly what is asked of us by 'spirit' and how much we 'should suffer' before we are pure enough to open up to higher levels of consciousness. 

Anything that you do or allow to be done to you, to cause suffering to yourself or your body is not spiritual in any way. Pain, emotional, physical, psychic, energetic - whatever - serves to push you out of yourself away from the direction naturally mapped out for us. Discomfort and challenge are not on the same vibration as pain.

Likewise spending time in negative environments with those who do not care to understand who or what you are (or worse) is a contamination of the energy field. Your body cannot possibly maintain good health (mind and soul equally) when you immerse yourself in these lower vibrations consistently. 

This all being said, doesn't meant that you have to completely back away from all and everything - not entirely. However, you do have to carefully consider who and what you want to become, where your journey will take you and if hanging around those who have no spiritual leanings is beneficial.

For the most part these two issues will mainly revolve around the work you do and those in your wider circles. Often our immediate family are all from one soul group and we will be on a similar track together. You will not be taken from love. 

What is being asked of us, one and all who walk the talk, is to unbelieve some of these spiritual 'rules' that have little to do with higher consciousness. Awareness grows and moves from cell to cell within our bodies - anything that we might do to interfere with that process can cause imbalance to our system.

Perhaps it is time to end the pattern of suffering and embrace something new. Isn't it interesting that the opposite of suffer is thrive, flourish  and prosper? 

Have a wonderful day,

April

Borage in the herb garden

Getting Out of Our Own Way

These past few days during my cleanse I have been focused on removing obstacles, blocks, resistance and other negative energy that has been holding me back. So, with this theme in mind I have been chipping away at some of the more obvious areas where I have been feeling stuck.

Of course the entire point of doing any cleanse of this sort, what I would call a 'spiritual detox' is to get at the bottom of whatever these underlying patterns are buried deep in my soul. I once heard it said that dysfunction of the spirit is far more serious then any other disorder of the body. This part of us can be damaged seemingly beyond repair and it is a delicate place to encourage healing.

In fact many of us go through our entire lives feeling hurt, damaged, weary or worse, not feeling at all - because the heart, the door that leads to spirit has been firmly closed in face of pain and adversity. Is it any wonder that the number one disorder and most modern diseases centre around the heart?

Just what is it that drives us out of our 'homes' and takes us so very far away from the centre of our being, enough to cause a slow and painful inflammation that ultimately develops from disconnection? Perhaps there is no one reason but many forming a web that contains us and disables our ability to find our way back to our deepest selves.

We have all heard the saying 'you can't go home again' and I fully understand this on one level. Once you leave the place of your childhood, you will change and step into bigger shoes, not wanting to play the same roles. To me then, this was not our home, but a temporary living arrangement in someone else's house. 

You must seek out a place for yourself, creating it out of the person you want to be and then put your heart and soul into such a project. Yet not many people can achieve this or even realize that this is what they are seeking in their lives.

A block in the heart is an emptiness, a hole that cannot be filled though many of us try with excess food, drink, drugs and other addictions. If you are brave and want to continue on your spiritual journey, this hole will have to be repaired one way or another. Of course, there are many bonuses to be found in the healing of the heart, and you will watch your life come back together in new ways.

Perhaps the best thing we can do once we are at this point is to make sure that we are not equally part of the problem here, hanging on to our familiar blocks and obstacles. 

It is time to let go and move onwards and upwards. 

April

Looking For Love

As you may know already, I am on day 8 of a 10 day Master Cleanse which I started with the firm intention of removing blocks, breaking down walls and navigating my way around obstacles that were generally holding me back from living my dreams.

Here I am breaking down these walls around my heart and all I am thinking of is love - of course for me, I always start a query by looking it up - love is an emotion of strong affection and personal attachment that you feel for another person. Ok. But, that doesn't fill in all of the blanks for me yet. 

What else is love? What does it mean to me and why do I curl up and move away from people who throw this word around so easily? I write in one of my books that there must be different levels or degrees of love - because I can hear this word and want to run or 'feel' it and want to stay.

So, love must be far more than just an emotion, or a word and even an action. If love is what you do, who you are, the things you are passionate about and your inner soul/heart/being all wrapped up into one package - why are so many people afraid of it?

I am not entirely sure that I will be able to explain this but I will give it a try. From my observations, love is a force and not just any force it is THE central force of the Universe. Being a force it is strong, deliberate and certain. When I look up the word force I find - 

~ force is any influence that causes an object (insert person here) to undergo a certain change in movement, direction or structure

When we allow those words and meaning to sink in a little, it makes sense that being around 'love' or witnessing the power and strength (force) of love can be quite unnerving for many people because that is pretty awesome stuff.

Love then is an emotion or state of being and place inside of us, once we re-gain our inner spaces, where this force resides. To be perfectly honest, I am surrounded by love, and I do many of the things that I love to do, however, it has taken multiple cleanses, years of detox and walking a spiritual journey to take me just to the door of love inside of myself.

When I make connections to all else that I am doing in my life, these facts inform me of something vitally important here - that the food we eat, the water we drink, the people we spend time with, the work we do and the lives we have been living - have all conspired to push us as far away from the power of love as possible.

If our physical bodies are filled with fear (from television, radio, food, medication, unhappy relationships, dead end jobs etc.) then there is no room left for love. Or, love is pushed and squeezed into tiny far reaching corners of our beings, cut off and disconnected from our energy flow. 

Most of us live this way, experience our entire lifetimes missing out on the key element that makes us unique and gives our human species unlimited potential. Love is a force which is an energy drive or source of power. And we don't even know that we have it. 

Living the way we are living, burying ourselves in layers of debris and toxins, digging these holes and falling into patterns that keep us trapped and held back... it is no wonder that so many are frustrated, tired and angry with life and just want things to change. You, however are the only one that can decide to do the work that it takes to create the changes that you want in your life.

May the force be with you,

April

Schull by the harbour