Thursday, September 12, 2024
I recently had a colonoscopy, and if you’ve ever had one, you know the inconvenience of the preparation and procedure. You’re chained to the toilet for 12 hours, and then by the time the procedure comes, you’re starving, light-headed, and ready to go home.
This time around, I found the experience lesson-worthy and even pleasant. I enjoyed the purge, the 24-hour fast, and being cared for by the nurses whilst waiting. I loved the propofol, the feeling of letting go and going to la-la land. When I got home, I didn’t eat for quite some time, even though I could have inhaled my fridge. I loved the lightness. I enjoyed staying in that emptiness a while longer. While hungry, I found pleasure in being unfed.
I love eating, but the sensation of hunger has a different, parallel benefit. I call it the pleasure of vacuity. Exhaling is no different from inhaling. Spending is no different from earning. When you understand this metaphysical principle, you get strangely drawn to more balance and unrestricted flow, in and out.
Giving the body what it wants all the time can lead to gluttony, stiff muscles, and general lethargy. The body doesn’t want to move, to be hungry, or to lift weights. But resistance must be overcome. You have to overcome inertia, hunger, and pain by almost welcoming them. Nature abhors a vacuum, but it’s in that vacuum that she fertilizes the greatness of potential. Nature will fill the vacuum, but enjoys the space of emptiness longer than the flesh might. She loves the womb. She’ll fill it with good things, but once they are birthed, creation starts again. The pleasure of vacuity – what amazing things are you missing out on by fearing hunger, letting go, or spaciousness? Jump into the wonders of being unfed and experience a new dimension of a more complete kind of joy.