Interesting homework assignment...

One of our homework assignments this time was to pick something for a one day fast. It didn't have to be food, but anything that could show clearing, clarity, or purity based on the ideas of one of the niyamas, Shauca. We were advised to consider what we need to fast on... where do we proliferate, clutter, or confuse our life unnecessarily. We were to choose one aspect of our life and create the intention to cleanse in that direction. Several examples were given... and yes I know the obvious one of the clutter in my house would immediately leap to mind but since I am already working on that I decided to choose a different focus.

I had two candidates.
The first was a one day fast from any added sugar to what I eat throughout the day. I came to that because of all the sweet things I have been eating and craving lately: peanut butter and jam sandwiches, British cream tea with sugar, pie... the list goes on and on.

The second was to not play any of the computer games that have been pulling me away from my life lately. Aside from some occasional Words with Friends games on Facebook I also play a lot of time wasting games on my Galaxy Tablet: the usual things like solitaire and mah jong and sudoku as well as a lot of matching games, and a strangely addictive little game called Pocket Trains. I have been spending way too much time with them lately, mostly to avoid doing other things.

I ended up choosing the computer games because they seemed more of a problem.

So I did that on Saturday, Oct. 17 for the whole day. Truth is it helped to be pretty busy that day (yoga class in the morning and yoga workshop -- Wise Women -- in the afternoon) but even so, being home at night and after dinner when I would normally want to go play a game I couldn't. I ended up reading and thankfully falling asleep early from all the activity that day.

Sunday morning I woke up and didn't have exactly the same urge to get into my game computer as usual, although I do usually enjoy going to Pocket Trains for their daily challenge. I did end up getting to it but it didn't have exactly the same urgency as before.

What I learned:  well for me I can do anything for one day so it wasn't much of a challenge. Not that I wanted to take it further, but I think I need to go without things longer for it to make an impact. Also since these last weeks of the teacher training have been so challenging, I think this "fast" turned out to be the easiest thing I have had to do. But if nothing else, it made me realize how much time I have been wasting playing computer games (a realization I get now and then, then it fades, and I play again, then the realization hits, the cycle repeats).

I still have a long way to go...