The First 72 Hours: The Quiet Beginning of My Water Fast
- 7 hours ago
- 2 min read
When my water fast officially began, I really thought (and hoped) that something dramatic would happen.
I thought I would feel intense hunger, deep spiritual moments, or some kind of emotional breakthrough. Instead, the first few days felt surprisingly quiet...almost ordinary. In a strange way, that felt unfamiliar and even a little unsatisfying.
What helped more than I expected was the prep. For the two weeks leading up to day one, I had already been slowly changing how I ate - fruits, vegetables, beans, nuts, a few grains, and no salt or oil. For those of you who know me, NO SALT is like taking my life away. At the time, it felt like discipline. Looking back, I realize it was actually mercy. Because of that two-week prep, my body wasn't shocked the way it might have been, which allowed me to start noticing things internally much sooner.
For me, the first few days weren't really about hunger. They were about awareness.
I started noticing how many moments in my day I usually fill automatically...a snack, scrolling, checking messages, finding something to "do." When I went into the fast, I set my out-of-office replies, put my phone on DND (including calls and messages), deleted my Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn icons, and even set a 1-minute limit in case I "accidentally" opened them. When all of those options disappeared, there was space. And space, I realized, can feel uncomfortable before it feels peaceful.
In that space, my thoughts got louder at first, but not chaotic (as I expected). They were just thoughts that I had been outrunning for a long time. Questions about relationships. Emotions I had learned to manage instead of actually "feel." A quiet loneliness I had normalized because life had always been moving too fast to sit still long enough to recognize it.
Nothing dramatic happened outwardly. I walked. I journaled. I rested more than I normally allow myself to. But inside, my nervous system began to shift. I could feel the pace of my life slowing down in a way that felt both unfamiliar and deeply needed. I knew I was on the right path.
I also began noticing something that surprised me...how my body reacted to different interactions. Some of my deep relational work/journaling/therapy sessions left me calm and peaceful, while others left me tense without any obvious reason. For years, I had evaluated relationships mostly with my mind - loyalty, history, responsibility - but during these early days, I began paying attention to what my nervous system was quietly telling me.
That alone felt like the beginning of deeper work.
The first three days didn't look extraordinary from the outside. But internally, something had begun that mattered more than I realized at the time: I was finally creating enough stillness to hear what had been waiting beneath all my "motion."
More to come...
For those who are walking a similar season, I've included links below to a few earlier reflections that helped shape this journey:
Wow, this is so well written, may we all follow your example. "In that quiet, I began noticing how much of my life I had been filling instead of feeling." I love how you made space for God's voice, it reminds me of Psalm 62:1 & 5 NLT.