Fasting
2020-08-19
If you are curious why I fast and/or what my fasting day looks like, I’d encourage you to read my blogpost Why Do I fast?. To read previous blog posts about my fasting experiences click here.
The 2014 Sochi Olympics started this week and it bought back a ton of memories for me of what I was doing during winter Olympics past, primarily in 1998 and 2010.
During the 1998 Nagano games I was teaching downhill skiing in Japan for nearly three weeks on an exchange program that a senior ski instructor at Whistler had set up. It was my second winter teaching at Whistler/Blackcomb, and to be honest one of the main reasons I returned to teach there was so that I’d have the opportunity to go on the exchange to Japan. Funny thing is that nobody came to Whistler, so how was it an exchange?! At the tail end of my three weeks in Japan I spent three days exploring Kyoto, a city that I had wanted to see for a long time. I loved all the history in Kyoto, and one of the memories that stuck out for me was going to visit the Temple of the Golden Pavilion (Kinkaku-ji).
The morning that I went to the temple there was low cloud with light snow coming down. A few people at the hostel told me it was not worth going to see it unless it was sunny. I decided to go anyways and paid my admission at the temple entrance. On the short walk towards the temple the snow was getting a little heavier, and now I was really questioning why I was here since I may not be able to see the temple at all. I got to an area on the path where it intersected with a circular route that went around a small pond and the temple. After stopping to decide whether to turn right or left at the junction, the clouds literally parted and the sun came out. Directly in front of me between the trees was the glimmering temple! It was an incredible sight at the timing still kind of blows me away. A picture of it appears below.
The majority of the ten instructors from Whistler on the exchange went to Nagano for the 1998 Olympics after their ski teaching ended. I had decided not to go since I had been saving for over a year for a nearly three month Europe backpacking trip which I would be taking in mid-April. That being said, after hearing of their first-hand experiences at the Olympics at a reunion dinner back in Whistler, I decided then and there that if I were ever living close to a summer or winter Olympic host city that I would go. Which brings me to the 2010 Vancouver games…
When the calendar turned to 2010 I was living in Calgary, Alberta, Canada which is only a one-hour flight away from Vancouver. I had enough points to fly to Vancouver for a very low cost, and there was a potential that I could stay with family and/or friends in Vancouver. A no brainer! In early January I booked my flights to Vancouver, started contacting people for a sofa to crash on, and combing through the Olympic ticket resell website to get tickets to events. I was there for the final four days of the Olympics, got to one event and two medal ceremonies, took in many of the free events and concerts, and even made it up to Whistler one day. I was not able to stay with family or friends since their places were already full. That being said I watched the men’s gold medal hockey game between Canada and the USA at my cousin’s place with him and his wife, as well as my aunt and uncle. I was grateful to be able to watch the game at their home with extended family. During the Olympics I ended up staying at a hostel on Granville Street. That was one of the busiest places during the games, and there were people partying on the street until 3 am or later every night. It was a fun time!
When I was planning the Vancouver trip I had booked a week off work, which allowed me to have three days after the Olympics in Vancouver. During that time I went to a few areas that I had never been to and revisited some places that I knew very well, including the Richmond Hospital area. I had been an inpatient there for a week in 2007 after my second manic episode. Immediately prior to being an inpatient in Richmond I had attended an overseas spiritual/personal development retreat led by the author Alan Cohen. During this three days exploring different parts of Vancouver I kept thinking of one of Alan’s quotes that is one of my favourites:
“”Build your world around your dreams rather than trying to fit your dreams into the world you know.” – Alan Cohen
To this day I can only guess as to why I this quote kept going through my mind during those three days. Bottom line is that I had settled for a stable job in a very stable field of work, I was living in a condo in Calgary that I owned outright with no debt, my car was paid off, the only debt I had was for various investments, and my mental health was stable as I had not had a manic episode in nearly three years. From the outside looking in I had a lot of good things in my life. However I wasn’t enjoying my career and I didn’t see myself living in a big city for the rest of my life. Ever since I had lived in Whistler I had dreamed about living in the mountains again. At this point I felt as though I was fitting my dreams into the world that I know, and as a consequence I had given up on my dream of living in the mountains and having a fulfilling career. During those three days I envisioned my dream life. It entailed living in the mountains close to Calgary and having a business which I was passionate about, was fulfilling, and allowed me to have financial abundance. Living in the mountains would allow me to be on the doorstep for many outdoor activities which I love.
When I returned to Calgary in early March after the Olympics I had a meeting with a business coach that I had been working with for the past seven months. Through working with him and another business coach, I had started working on a business part-time. At the meeting I told him of my experiences in Vancouver after the Olympics and how I kept thinking of that Alan Cohen quote. The coach told me point blank to follow my dream – quit my job in Calgary and move out to the mountains. Shortly thereafter I made the decision to do so. On July 1 of that year I moved to Canmore, Alberta, which is right in the mountains about 45 minutes west of Calgary. Below is the view from the first place I lived in Canmore.
During my fasting on February 6, 2014 I reflected on how radically different my life is now compared to how it was four years ago. I now have a different business called Scott Inside Out, I work as a server in Banff to support my income, I am a renter and not a homeowner, I do something outdoors in nature almost daily year-round, I am much healthier overall than I was in 2010, etc…
I also now have debt. I am optimistic that I will be debt-free again by the end of 2014. That being said, it is something that I thought about quite a bit during this fasting day. Wouldn’t it be awesome to have no debt like I did four years ago? I would have so much less stress regarding money. I could write an entire blog post about how I got into debt, and maybe someday in the future I will. Bottom line is that it was a combination of things in my control and many things that weren’t. Am I glad that I took the risk to follow my dream of living in the mountains and pursuing a more fulfilling life? Absolutely.
One of my biggest lessons and reminders from this fasting experience is that of getting up fast after taking a step back. It’s a term I’ve heard on many occasions on group coaching calls that I participate in biweekly. Getting up fast is something that I’m getting better at. I took a step back when I focused on how my financial situation has changed for the worse in the last four years while I made a ton of life changes, made some mistakes, and had some occurrences happen totally out of my control. When I reflected on how much healthier and happier I am now, how much I absolutely love where I live, how grateful I am to be living here, and how I’m creating a more fulfilling life, I shifted my energy. As my financial picture continues to improve and I generate more business and residual income, I feel that I will not step back as often or as far in the future…
I’m looking forward to seeing what my life is like during the 2018 Olympics.