One of the most ancient metaphors is that of weaving. There seems to be something incredibly meaningful, and spiritual about weaving fibers together to produce an an incredibly useful product such as clothing or a blanket. Between 4 and 5 thousand years ago, Hindu artforms would begin to develop around Tantra, which literally means to weave. Funny how ancient cultures have words for something that would take a novel to explain in English.
Anyway from this tantric tradition emerges the concept of the seven chakras, for which Muladhara is the first and primary. It actually means, root chakra. I bring this up, because in my learning, I have determined there is a link between fasting and gaining a healthy balance of this chakra. It is said that this chakra is at the most primal area of the human mind. Remember the mind is not just what is in between your ears, but rather the entire nervous system. In the base area, around the pelvic area, is the area from which the three major psychic channels come forth. You can choose to believe in all this or not, but the point is that if you are all messed up in this area, you can just forget about any higher levels of mental, or spiritual thinking.
This is absolutely true, at least for me. I discovered this while running frequently. I had moments of pristine clarity, mental vision, spiritual transcendence during and after running. However, if I had any gastronomical issues going on as a result of unhealthy eating, forget about it. All progress would be lost and I would be back at square one. If you are not eating well, and you do not have good control over your diet, the higher levels of spirituality and mental clarity are really hard to obtain.
Quite simple, fasting is the shortcut to fix this. Fasting brings this back under control and into harmony really fast and can help you get centered and back into a balance. In my opinion, this is why intermittent fasting works so well. Sure, you might eat less calories, but I think the bigger reasons is that you are just in a better state in general. Call it a flow state. With this root chakra in balance, you can begin to improve other areas of your life. Fasting is the easy button here. Which is the principle reason why I adhere to a fasting regime where I can.
