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I OCCASIONALLY FAST for a day. I have my
last meal in the evening, eat nothing at all the next day, and
resume eating the morning after that. I do it because the scientific
evidence indicates it is healthy. The body is not really supposed
to have three square meals a day every single day. It is unnatural.
It is also healthy for a relationship to
go on a communication fast once in awhile. Choose a day you both
have off from work and say your last words to each other the
night before. Say nothing to anybody the next day and resume
talking the morning after that.
To make it even better, fast from every
kind of communication. Don't watch television, do email, or even
read a book.
This is a powerful practice that will deepen
your relationship. Why?
Because any time you can suspend the expression
of well-ingrained habits, they become less ingrained.
You've had a negative example of this, I'm sure. Have you ever
had a regular exercise routine or some other regular practice
and after a vacation, never again resume it? Maybe weeks later,
you'll realize you haven't been exercising and you'll think you've
failed or you are weak-willed or something.
Well, you are not weak. You've merely suspended
a well-ingrained habit and made it less ingrained. You can use
this phenomenon for your benefit instead of your detriment. When
you want to be less automatic — when you want to enhance
the freshness of your habits of communication, suspend communicating
for a period of time. You'll be able to come back to communicating
with more awareness.
And anytime you stop doing something you
have fully taken for granted, you learn to appreciate it more.
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