my Spiritual Fast 2026 – Renewal and Growth

by Jim Montrose, Ayurvedic Specialist March 2026 

I completed my 19 days spiritual fast for 2026, last week. Every year I abstain from food and drink from sunrise to sunset as a spiritual fast conducive to spiritual evolution and renewal.  The spiritual fast is one component that fuels my Body-Mind, Heart and Spirit (BMHS) solution to integrate the Spiritual element of my life. 

This year is the thirty second spiritual fast. I observe the fast spiritual reasons and not for health. It is the temporary abstention from food or comforts to heighten focus on prayer and dependence on God. Thus shifting the focus from the physical to the spiritual. Helping me turn to God for sustenance, surrender to Spirit, and personal renewal on the spiritual front.

I am sad to see the fast end this year. This was the easiest year yet. Surrendering to Spirit enables me to let Spirit lead and everything became easier in my life (life is Spirit and when we live from that space we are sustained and comforted in it).

Tests and difficulties came during the fast and were easier than expected.

This year we had some big tests and difficulties while doing the fast and surprisingly, they too were so much easier to handle. In surrendering, I go inside where true safety resides and observe the silence. Look to the end of things I wanted and receive guidance almost immediately. Renouncing all else, that is the noise and distraction in the world, I felt connected to Spirit greater than before. It sustains me and I had little cravings. Life flows like it does when I have a peak experience in sports or focus on work.

I hardly missed eating or drinking during the day. My temptation eased after the first day. The fast was smooth, glorious, and supportive. I realize when I surrender and live aligned with Spirit everything does go better.

The spiritual fast revealed to me the value of service.

During the last few days of our fast this year we visited a friend in the hospital on our way back from errands in Cape Town. We had not seen her for years and were happily rewarded for stopping by to see her. It was a lovely visited that brought such smiles and appreciation to her face that we were filled with joy and love and smiles in return. Reminding me life is about bringing service and the gift of fellowship to friends, family and humanity. In this case a simple smile, I pray that you too will share a smile and be rewarded by the flowering of love in you.

How to keep this wonderful experience alive this year. A week almost two weeks later the good feelings and lessons still linger but weaker. Yet when I bring consciousness to this, I read a prayer, go back inside and observe silence, look to the end, and renounce the world it brings me back into Spirt away from the physical. To feel the connection, I remember in each moment I consciously choose do I want to live connected to Spirit or just go along in physical existence.

When I slow down a moment – I affirm that I depend on Spirit for true sustenance, protection, and to feel and be more alive. It resonates deep inside and I feel the connection.

I remember to fixate on what I want to drown out the vibration or reverberation of everything I don’t want.

A couple Spiritual Quotes that caught my attention during the fast for this year:

“Love is a distinction never conferred on a heart possessed by fear.” – Baha’u’llah

“…Renewal is the order of the day.
And all this newness hath its source in the fresh outpourings of wondrous grace and favor from the Lord of the Kingdom, which have renewed the world. The people, therefore, must be set completely free from their old patterns of thought, that all their attention may be focused upon these new principles, for these are the light of this time and the very spirit of this age.”
– Abdu’l–Baha

Have you experienced a spiritual fast or an experience where you depended on something beyond your material experience? It’s more common than most of us think. Driving to the gas station praying, even hoping, we don’t run out of gas. Finding the right exit when we are lost.

Instead of just being a synchronistic event, would it empower you if you saw it as a spiritual power to develop and use? Do you have any experiences , please share a comment if you desire.

Have a wonderful year live with Spirit,

Jim Montrose, Ayurvedic Specialist and the Body-Mind, Heart and Spirit guru.

P.S. – Are you ready for something Grand, watch for it in the next couple of weeks.

P. P.S. This article was first published here on Jimmontrose.com my new Website first.

 “Imagine it, Be it, and very importantly take inspired Action now,” Jim Montrose, Ayurvedic Specialist

Copyright March 2026