Fasting the Mind - Spiritual Exercises for Psychic Detox

Stop planning, stop comparing, stop competing, stop thinking, and just breathe deeply for a minute..

.. Our undivided attention is something we are rarely able to give for reasons rang-

ing from digital overload to the cultural conditioning of equating busyness with purpose. Just as vou might choose a fast from eating to detoxify the body, the best way to overcome this modern mental overload is to periodically fast the mind.

Drawing on the spiritual philosophies and meditative practices of classical yoga, Hindu-ism, Buddhism, and Taoism, Jason Gregory explains how fasting the mind creates peace and calmness in your life as well as allows you to build a firm psychological defense against the increasing bombardment of distractions in our world. Applying psychology and cognitive science to samsara--the cycle of suffering created by our attachment to the impermanent--he explains how overreliance on the rational mind causes imbalances in the autonomic nervous system and suppresses our natural spontaneity, feelings, and intuition. When we are unable to relax the mind deeply, we enter a destabilizing state of stress and anxiety and are unable to liberate the true Self from the impermanence and limitations of the material world

Sharing Zen, Taoist, and Vedic practices, the author shows how to give the mind time to truly relax from stimulation so it can repair itself and come back into equilibrium. He details simple meditation practices that are easy to implement in daily life, such as open-awareness meditation and contemplation of Zen koans, as well as the advanced techniques of Vipassana, a Theravadic Buddhist discipline centered on seclusion from all worldly stimuli. He also offers methods for digital detox and ensuring a good night's sleep, a major support for healing cognitive impairment and restoring a state of equanimity.

Approx: 6" x 9"