as fasting of the mind and feasting in the Spirit
by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God.
Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
Finally, brothers and sisters,
whatever is true, whatever is honorable,
whatever is just, whatever is pure,
whatever is lovely, whatever is merciful,
if there is any excellence and
if there is anything worthy of praise,
think of these things...
Then the God of peace will be with you.
(Phil 4, 6-9)
The crucial point of this technique is the moment when I first time break out of the vitious circle of tormenting thoughts. It is very difficult to do this, if a strong emotion accompanies the occurrence of the thought. For example, happens a disappointing event, and it triggers a feeling hopelessness, which can be very strong as it recalls all the past memories, with similar thoughts to this: �It is always so, there is no change in life, we can not wait nothing better, different�. The emotions can be so strong that are blocking our will and really we can not let go the sad thoughts. In this case maybe useful to give us time, repeatedly, patiently and gently remind ourselves that we want to be free from this feeling and thought. Practicing the centering prayer surely will help, as the inner motion during this kind of prayer takes away our attention from the thoughts to the presence of God. Letting God in is a re-creating event that transforms our manner of thinking. I think it is not by chance that my own experience of awakening from my false thoughts that I described before happened in the year when I knew about centering prayer and two months after I began to practice it. An other thing I found helpful is to do some simple work as taking care of plants, making up the room, or also a nice walk can help. I experienced relief of sad feelings in going to see stores, not for necessity of shopping, only for the enjoyment of watching things and people. All these can help to direct our attention away from our �misery�, so taking distance from the torturing �problem� which so looses importance and later we can let it go easier. Talking with a friend sometimes can be good, but there are situations when we could prefer to be alone. These is a point that everybody should try, experiment and so choose the best way of help.
As the time passes, in different situations slowly we learn more and more about our �weak points�, the typical things that disturb us mostly. Some of these will disappear in time and things that were very horrible for us will not make any effect on us. Other situations will remain for all our life critical or will reappear and disappear again. It is sure however, that more conscious we are of what is happening in our mind and heart, more awaken we are, the more we will be able enjoy living and being a good and peaceful presence for others. I think it is also to take in consideration other people when we seek healing.
The process of mindfasting needs to be complemented by filling our minds with constuctive, consoling and compassionate thoughts, which in turn will reach also our affectivity and fill our hearts with gratitude and peace and love. This positive complement of mindfasting is called spirit-feasting in Christotherapy. The concept is simple: if we are occupied with goodness there will be no place for destructive thoughts.
In this process we are not alone as we can call the Holy Spirit dwelling in the depths of our spirit and ask his (her?) assistence in inspiring our intellect and protect our psyche. Of course, this feast of the spirit has many sources to draw from, in great diversity according to our personal sensibility. Nature, art, music, company of friends, books, poetry might be the place where we encounter consolation.