Facing In

Ever since freshman year of college, I have practiced the lenten practice of self-denial, of fasting. 
There are many reasons that people keep this tradition, but for me, I find that the it is practice that forces me out of my comfort zone and makes me be a bit more intentional about the way I live. It is ritual that is, oddly, both self-centered and selfless, one that requires me to look inward at myself in self examination in hopes that I live more purposefully facing out. 
This year, I am giving up the hours of podcasts and audiobooks that I use to pass the time while I travel on public transit. 
Over the past few years I have found that my creative output and ability to experience life poetically has shriveled up. I think I live anesthetized by a constant stream of "input." I think that forcing my brain to rest, process, and "be" is a crucial practice that I have slowly lost over the course of the past 5 years.

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