What is an Input Fast?

Posted: February 13, 2023

What is an Input Fast and why did I decide to do one? (Part 1 of 2)

After I wrote my end of the year 2022 newsletter, I took a step back and realized how much information I was consuming and inputting into my system on a regular basis. In that newsletter, I shared a few books I was reading and 10 podcasts that I listen to. After I sent that newsletter out, I realized, wow, that was only 10 podcasts out of somewhere between 20 to 40 that I regularly listen to. That led me down a rabbit hole of looking at my overall information consumption. Unsurprisingly, it was the tip of the iceberg.

While for the most part I don’t consume TV, movies, Netflix, or social media, I was still being quite consumptive. It’s not uncommon for me to read between somewhere between 4 and 10 books a week if I’m in the mode. Each week I listen to way too many podcasts to count, and often do some sort of continuing education type online class, and you know, do daily life and work too. Even though when I take walks I don’t listen to anything, I realized I had slipped down that slippery slope of a constant soundtrack of other people’s thoughts and ideas in my head. When driving, I always had a podcast on. When folding the laundry, I always had a podcast on. When doing just about anything that didn’t require 100% of my energy, I had a podcast on. I realized that the only times I was “being alone” with myself were in my morning meditation, morning pages, yoga practice, and on my walks. Just about every other time of the day, there was something outside of myself being input.

Now, you might be thinking, what’s wrong with that? Maybe nothing, which is why I decided to experiment. I needed more data on myself. Each person is different. Some people focus better with a running soundtrack of music or pods or background noise. For certain tasks, that’s the case for me too. But for me, I realized I was being subtly influenced by all of this input. Information was begetting more information. I wasn’t processing it so much as just consuming it in a loop without intention.

It went something like this - wake up, meditate, pull oracle cards, check astrology apps, do morning things, start working, put on a pod, take a lunchtime walk, mini yoga practice, back to work put on a pod, afternoon study break to listen to a continuing education class, back to work put on a pod, eat dinner, do dishes and pod, do laundry and pod, do evening tasks while listening to pod, quiet time, go to bed, take out a book. Are you overstimulated reading this? Because I am!

Honestly, that wasn’t every day, but it was enough days of the week to make me take notice. I thought, I need to take some space here. I’d like less outside input than this, even just for a little while. This feeling had happened to me before during intense study courses, when I am taking in a lot of new information at once, like my most recent 300 hour training, but I had not experienced it within my regular days before.

I don’t think I am different than anyone else in this respect, we are ALL taking in A LOT of information every single day, simply by living in the world. To be quite honest, I think it is why so many of us are so exhausted in a way that we aren’t used to. This feeling of underlying fatigue that we just can’t put our finger on (especially if you are a highly sensitive person). We are simply taking in more information than our forebearers ever even had access to, and I am not quite sure we have evolved for it yet. It has all changed so fast and our brains, bodies, and systems are still playing catch up. A lot of it has also happened passively and below the level of our awareness. Nischala Joy Devi says in her book, The Secret Power of Yoga, that if you read a New York Times cover to cover, you will take in more information than people 100 years ago consumed in their whole lifetimes.

Let’s pause here and take that in. Inhale through your nose, exhale through your nose.

That is an incredible exponential expansion of the amount of information humans are taking in. If that is true, imagine how we will be 10 years from now, never mind 20.

With all that said, I realized I needed a break. A fast if you will. I have used the term “Input Fast” before when I have taken one for a day or two, but I can’t exactly remember where the term came from. I think it comes from Danielle LaPorte who talks about something like this in some of her writings. There is also a portion of the idea that comes from The Artist’s Way (TAW) by Julia Cameron. In TAW, Cameron gives an assignment not to read for a week. She doesn’t specify what reading means, but in todays terms unless you are on retreat or in the woods, words show up in every sector of our lives every single day. Words are everywhere.

I took these two ideas and put my own spin on it to adjust for my own life, habits and intentions.

So what is it, exactly?

I have defined this for myself as removing any external input that is “extra” or “non-essential” to my daily living for a pre-determined period of time. In my case, from January 3 - 19, 2023. (Oddly for me, not a neat and tidy timeframe, but that is where the experiment fit into my schedule.) My overall intention was - less external input so that I can better hear my own inner voice and see what comes up.

“Non-essential” or “Extra” to me, meant fasting from -

-Podcasts

-Oracle Cards

-Astrology

-Human Design

-Reading Books (E-books and Paper Books)

-Study-Courses / Continuing Education Courses

-All classes and workshops taught by other teachers

-Unsubscribing from non-essential newsletters

-No researching/googling unnecessarily (aka non emergency)

I also put my Kindle Unlimited subscription on hold, deleted all of my podcast apps from my phone, and pushed out all of the holds on my library books in my library app.

(You could easily do this by removing one thing instead of all the things. I decided to remove as much as I could because that is what felt right to me. )

I also had yes list, or an “add in” list, which I think is necessary for anytime we are removing something. It helps us with clarity and not to “fill up” with something mindless. It helped me to stay with my intention.

I did continue to use email for work, as I considered that in the category of “essential” for daily living, however, I did decrease unnecessary email checking, and set new boundaries for myself. I also unsubscribed from a lot of email lists.

I did some preplanning and wrote down my intentions and goals, along with my fast list and my yes list. I like to write it down because it means I don’t have to keep it in my head if I get stuck and need to reference back. I took a page of my regular morning pages journal and put it in there. Nothing fancy, just a record for myself. This can also help with motivation if you find yourself needing it at any point in the process.

I had no idea what to expect. I had no idea if I could do the books part, but I was excited to find out.

Want to find out how I did? Read on in Part 2 (To Be Released on Friday, Feb 17, 2023)