The Power of Spiritual Discipline

So fasting is about letting go, about giving up with intention so that you may be freed from that thing that you've given power to. Good morning, sunshine. Welcome to the Faith and Growth podcast, the space where psychology and spirituality come together to help you rise into the person you were created to be. If you're ready to stop playing small and start living the life God designed for you, I got you. I'm Dr. Betsi Guerra, psychotherapist, speaker, and author. And I'm here to help you heal, rise, and walk boldly in your purpose. So if you're ready to do that, let's get started. My friends say that I have a chubby girl mind because I'm always thinking of food. If I have something in my mind that I'm craving, I will obsess over it. I will want to go buy it or order it. Just last Friday, I was in my prayer group with my friends, and we had a delicious, healthy dinner because we're mindful of what we eat. And then I could not stop thinking about cheesecake. And I was like, guava cheesecake. Oh, I would love to have one right now. So I went into Uber Eats and searched and, like, imagined it and enjoyed it and indulged in it before I even ordered it. And I just. I was obsessing over it. And I did not stop until I bought, ordered, and paid a lot of money for that guava cheesecake. And I'm in a. In a much better place now. But I can give you many examples, like those where. Where I'm like, I'll tell my kids, like, hey, do you guys want to go for ice cream? They're like, no, I'm not in the mood. And I'm like, darn it, I don't have an excuse to go get some ice cream. And I'll still get in the car, drive to the ice cream place, whip and dip one of my favorite, and then come back with ice cream for myself. What is that? So I have let food have power over me during many times in my life, especially. Especially when I feel depleted. Remember last week, me running around like a chicken without a head. Like, I have depleted my adaptation energy. So now I indulge and I receive some of that.

Like, a hit. Like, I received some of that energy from food. Some people find comfort in food. Some people, you know, like, they eat their emotions. So food has some power over me, and I have less will, willpower when I am depleted, when I'm really busy with a lot of things, doing other important things. It's in food that I tend to find comfort. And I think maybe the same is true for you. Maybe, I don't know, you get to reflect on that. So I want to share today with you a practice, a spiritual practice that I use to help me remember that my spirit is greater than my flesh and that and my desires and my cravings and food. Because I realize it's not healthy, like, I don't deserve. I learned this from Caro, one of my soul sister. She.

I remember her telling me once I'd be like, oh, I deserve a cheesecake. I've worked out every day and I have eaten super healthy. And she's like, well, what you really deserve is something that's good for your body. That's what you deserve, Something that's good for you and is also delicious, say, a cup of fruits or anything that is good for your body. That's what you deserve. And I remember thinking like, oh, my goodness, our entire lives we have received indulgences. Like, is that even a word? I don't know. We receive all these sugary treats, candies as rewards. So we think that when we've been a good girl or a good boy, we deserve to have something unhealthy, something sweet, something that's not good for your body. So her saying that, like, what you really deserve is something that's good for you really shifted my mindset and reminded me that not everything that feels good is good for you. The same way, not everything that hurts, harms, right? Like, I heard this example once where when you go to the dentist, it may hurt to be, you know, be being dealt with in your mouth, but does that harm you? No, it's healthy. It's good for you, but it hurts in the moment. And the same is true with the opposite. Like, not everything that feels good, tastes good, is delicious, is necessarily good for you. So I invite you to take a moment and think about something that separates you from your best self, Something that prevents you from becoming the person you were created to be. And maybe it's that you curse too much. Maybe it's that you're easily angered or easily annoyed. Perhaps it's like me, like, you know, something with food that you like, take comfort in it, and then you don't feel good about yourself. Or maybe it's the way you treat others. You get to reflect. So I'll give you one second. Take a moment. You can pause this. Take a moment to reflect on what separates you or prevents you from tapping into that greatness and highest self that you were created to be.

Okay, if you need more time, just pause me. I'm going to continue now. Whenever you discover the thing, the qualities or the bad habits that prevent you from being free, because that's the whole point. We get to be free. Free from cravings, free from the need to do something a certain way. Free from having to control. Free from these annoyances and these annoyances and irritability that we experience. Free what robs you of your freedom. Once you discover that, then let's reflect on how we can rise above it and change that so that it may allow you to tap into that greatness that you were created for. So for me, it's the food. And I'm sure there are other things, like control has been a big one, even entitlement. I've struggled with entitlement, which I'm really embarrassed to confess here, but I. But those have been things that separate me from God and from my best self. Because, by the way, when you separate from yourself, from the person, the spirit that God created you to be, when, when, when you're real, quote, unquote, like when your reality doesn't match the. The version of yourself that God created you to be, there's a gap, right? So you're separated. You're separated from yourself. You're separated from. From the part of you that was created by God and is one with God. And that's where the problems live, in that gap, in that separation. So what separates you? And now understand that.

This version of you that is separated from the higher version of you is also separated from God. So whenever you are separated from yourself, you're separated from the indwelling God, the Holy Spirit within. You're not tapping into that. So we get to breach that gap and bring you back home to your truest sense self, which is also your greatest highest self. Okay? When you discover that we now have the awareness of what is it? What is it that's separating me from God? For me, it's the need for control. It's sometimes entitlement, which then prevents me from treating people and being grateful the way I know how to, or the highest version of me knows how. How to. And it's also something as simple as food. You know, food can rob me of my freedom. I, I let food have power over me. And I, I came across this practice by gut incidents, I should say. My dear soul sister Caro, she started these rejuva fasts like she was doing this, these fasts with Dr. Sanchez, her partner at the time, and, and they were it was like a mimic fast at the beginning, so you could still eat some things in very limited quantities. But you were tricking your body into believing that it was starving, that it was fasting. And they were doing it mainly for health, for health purposes, so that it would create autophagy. Autophagy is the process through which, like the old bad cells die and then you create new cells in your body and that just helps you stay healthy. Because if you think of illnesses like cancer, you know, usually those come from the cells in your body that are, that are not operating correctly, that are contaminated, they're not good. So those cells that could potentially become something worse die in the process of autophagy because they starve, they're fed by sugar, they're fed by all these things that are toxic and unhealthy. And when you stop eating them, your body's like, okay, then I can't survive if I'm not going to get this food. So they were doing it mainly for purposes of having a healthy lifestyle. But I bring God into everything I do. And I was curious about it and I didn't think it was possible for me to fast because I love food. And I had this mindset of I was scared of being hungry. So whenever I was going somewhere for a long time, I made sure that I packed snacks or I ate in advance because I had this fear of being hungry. Before continuing the episode, allow me to invite you to book a call with me or my team@talktobetsy.com so that we can learn more about you and see if the faith based coaching academy is the answer to your prayer. I cannot wait to connect back to the episode. Like, I thought it was like the world was gonna end if I was a little bit hungry and I didn't have food to eat and I would get hangry. And I all these ideas about like, oh my good, my goodness, God forbid, I don't have food. Mind you, I've never. I don't know where that comes from because I've never experienced lack in that sense. I know for some of you you may not have had foot on the table every day, or maybe your parents had to only do rice and beans like in Cuba. I don't know. Right. Like, maybe you have had that experience and you can trace it back to that lack of. For me, I always had food on the table. I didn't necessarily have the foods that I wanted because my parents were very frugal. They were both accountants, so they made sure that they only bought was on sale. So I wanted grapes and they would bring me red grapes with seeds and I wanted the green ones without seeds. So maybe from that I have this thing of like, I want to eat what I want to eat and I feel so free when I can, like just splurge in the supermarket. But anyway, I digress. I'm just bringing that up in case you want to reflect a little bit on where it comes from so that in that awareness you can remind yourself that you're not in the same circumstances that you were when this habit evolved so you have permission to change it. That's the whole point of creating awareness of where it came from. It's not just to dwell in it or, you know, stay in the past. So I realized that I have this, like, I give power to food. And I was like, okay, I'm doing this fast, doing it. And something good about me is that if I say I'm going to do something, I show up. I don't mess around, I make it happen. So I was determined to go through this fast. And I did.

It was hard and it was not. We did it in community so we were able to share with each other. We had a doctor supporting us through it. Shout out to Dr. Sanchez. He's the best doctor I know. He's really, you know, he's a physician, but he also knows a lot about natural medicine. So he's really good about connecting like, or substituting medicine with natural remedies. He's fantastic. So send me a DM if you need his information. So he was with us, supporting us, and Caro was helping with the mindset and, and it just transformed my life. I could not believe I was able to mimic fast because it wasn't, you know, it was a real fast. It was hard, but it was still, you could still eat some, right? So I still couldn't believe that I was able to do that and to do it wisely. But of course I wasn't just going to do it for health reasons, biological health. I, I wanted to do it for spiritual reasons too. So in that journey of it was a five day fast, I offered it for an intention. I prayed every time I was hungry. I felt so much gratitude for having food and being able to choose not to eat it, whereas other people don't know when their next meal is going to come.

So it was a beautiful spiritual exercise. And the next time that we did the fast, I decided to do a water fast. And it was a five day water fast.

And in that journey I was like, oh my gosh, I can be hungry and it's okay. I'm not going to die because I'm hungry or, wow, I'm not as hungry as I thought I was going to be, or I don't know, like, I just felt so empowered and capable and strong, and I was like, oh, my goodness, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Is true. I never thought I could be the kind of person who would water fast for five days.

So when you go through something hard like that, you feel unstoppable. When I ran a marathon, I could not even run for a mile. I'm back to not being able to run for a mile. Like, I couldn't, I couldn't. I hated running. I couldn't run for a mile. Like, I was. It was not my strength. And I ran nonstop for five hours. Like, I never walked. I like, wow. Like, we can do really hard things. We just get to believe. We. We get to have faith not just in God and the fact that he's going to give us the strength and the resilience and the capacity to push through, but also in ourselves. Faith in ourselves in our ability to do hard things. Faith in the people around you, supporting you, the community, faith in the journey. In the process, we get to have faith. And when you have faith in that which you haven't been able to achieve yet, you've taken the first step. You already, you're already, you're already there. All you need to do is just show yourself. But ultimately the hardest part is actually committing to it. So when I fasted, I.

Again.

I offered it for an intention and I consented to God's presence and action within me at all times through prayer. And we've talked about prayer this whole month. And in doing that, I. I was freed from something I didn't even know I was a slave to. I was a slave to food. And mind you, I've always been very mindful of food. So I've. I've taken care of myself. I make pretty good decisions with how I eat regularly. But whenever my adaptation energy was to capacity, like I've already depleted it all, I would sabotage my healthy lifestyle with this cheesecake that I had to have. Mind you, this happened a week ago. So obviously I'm still working through it.

But I've learned that there's a difference between that cheesecake has power over me and I just must have it. And I choose to mindfully indulge in a cheesecake. Now, a week ago, the cheesecake had power over me. But the majority of the time, I have chosen to mindfully indulge. So when I choose to have a treat, I can have it or I cannot have it. And I know that it. That I don't have to have it, but I may choose to do so. And there's a big difference. I'm not saying don't indulge, don't make exceptions, don't have cheat days. I'm not saying any of that. I believe in balance. I believe in indulging. I believe in abundance, so.

I don't stand for that. However, is it from a place of. That has power over me and that's more important than what I stand for, or is it from a place of, you know, I really would like to have this and I'm okay with it, and I'm not even going to feel guilty about it later on.

From what angle does it come? There's a difference in how and why we do things. They may be the same action, but they will always have different outcomes and emotions attached to those outcomes, depending on what intention you did it with. So my invitation to you, my friend, is for you to reflect on what is the thing, what is the habit that separates you from your best self, that separates you from God, that you give power to more power than you should, and that robs you of your freedom. And when you find that, and for me, it's something as simple as food or something a little more complex, like control, which. Hello, my name is Betsy Guerra, and I am a recovering control freak. Right. Like, it's something that I've been working on for a long time. I feel like I'm in a really beautiful place in my life of surrender and obedience and being guided. And I think there's an opportunity for you to reflect on what do you get to reclaim your power from? Maybe it is futu. Or maybe it is control. You feel like if you don't control everything, that something bad's going to happen or something's going to go wrong and that control is robbing you of your freedom, of your peace, maybe even affecting your relationships or your health because you're so stressed out or so busy that you don't sleep enough and you do too much and it's exhausting. What is it? What is it that separates you? What is it that you think you must experience for everything to be okay? Because I promise you, there is nothing, nothing that you absolutely need to survive and be happy.

There's really nothing. Except, I believe, God, the presence of God, because even, of course, we need food to survive. But.

When you're deeply connected, you trust that God will provide that food. You. You don't need to have that purse or those shoes or that outfit. But there's a difference between needing it and I must have it. And, oh, I would like to have it. I would like to splurge and buy that. So I'm not against any of that. Like, my friend Caro always says that I'm extra. Abundance is one of my greatest values. And I love to, like, have, like, a lot. Like, you know, like, when I invite people, I like to have a lot of food for them and. And I like to give big gifts and be very generous and have the possibility of just experiencing and indulging in abundance from a place of love and from a place of generosity and from a place of caring, not from a place of I must have it or else. So I invite you to consider the practice of fasting. Fasting is.

A spiritual way in which we connect with the spirit, with the indwelling God, and we transcend our human needs and our human limitations. When you fast.

You train your body.

Or you remind your body, I should say that it's not as strong as the thing that got created. That spirit, that consciousness, whatever the soul, whatever you feel comfortable calling it.

When you fast, you realize, like, oh, I didn't need to do that. I didn't need to eat, that. I didn't need to hang out with that person. Sometimes fasting is, you know, I've, you know, you can fast cursing, you can fast tree, you know, with treats, you can fast with food, you can fast with bad habits. Smoking, like, fast is. Is giving up something that. That has been having power over you so you're, like, not consuming it. It could be alcohol, right? Like, people fast during Lent for meat, alcohol, all these things. So fasting is letting go or removing a habit, a thing, something in your life that you feel robs you of or prevents you from being your best self. Whether it's temporarily to remember that your spirit is stronger than that thing or permanently. People who have struggled with addiction oftentimes choose to fast alcohol or drugs forever. Forever. Because in their case, maybe like, continuing to consume that later on is a little harder than for people who don't have that addictive trait, right? So what do you want to fast? What do you want to let go of? Whether it's temporarily to remember or formally. Is it social media? Is it food? What is it? I would love to hear. So if you feel compelled to do so, send me a DM at Betterwithbetsy or write in the comments, tell me, what is it that you are fasting? Maybe you give us some great ideas that will inspire us to do that. So fasting is about letting go, about giving up with intention so that you may be freed from that thing that you've given power to. So that's it for today's episode. I would love to hear from you and remember that if you would like to go deeper in your psycho spiritual journey where you can grow and learn a lot about why you or the people around you think, feel and act the way you do and you want to grow closer to God, then you may want to go to the Faith and growth program@faithandgrowth.com and learn a little more about our Faith Based Coaching Academy which is is meant to transform your life. And I am actually doing the consults myself these days. So be sure to book a call@talktobetsy.com and I will personally guide you through how you can make your life better and how you can breach that separation between your best self that you were created to step into and this version of you that is still struggling to find her way home. So talkto betsy.com I hope to hear from your DMs and what you've been fasting and I will see you next week. Love you. Bye. That's it for today's episode. I loved, loved loved spending this time with you. So thank you for joining me. If somebody came to mind while you were listening, bless. Bless them with this episode, send it to them. And if you may please subscribe and leave a review. Those are really helpful to help us spread the message. And if you want to grow in faith and wisdom, join me@faithandgrowth.com thank you for spending this time with me. Love you. Bye.