Nothing after six

Ongkingco

A well-known diet scheme like “nothing-after-six” has effectively helped many to acquire a healthier lifestyle and lose weight.

This particular diet has a simple but demanding requirement: to stop eating after six in the evening.

The idea of implementing diets for the spiritual life can be very helpful.

In order to remedy spiritual difficulties, one also needs to exercise moderation in order to avoid being exposed or enslaved to the soul-threatening effects of sin.

In the same way that people become physiologically ill due to an unhealthy lifestyle, one endangers the soul’s health when he doesn’t take the healthy vitamins of prayer and the sacraments, when he fails to develop the antibodies of virtues to overcome vice and when measures are not placed to avoid dangerous ambits of sin.

Applying the “nothing-after-six” scheme to one’s spiritual life entails order and discipline.

For example, striving not to indulge in any form of social media, video games, music or watching movie series, etc. after six.

The diet’s contents are not determined arbitrarily, that is, simply foregoing a disordered indulgence.

First, one must discern what distracts most and prevents him from carrying out essential things at home.

Second, to orderly schedule when, where and how much time to engage our activities during the week.

Third, to focus on the virtue or virtues that one seeks to acquire in implementing this “spiritual diet.”

One must decisively reject any form of self-entitlement (e.g., I worked hard, I deserve a little rest or this will only be short, etc.) to justify slackening the diet’s demands.

Otherwise, such small and brief compensations will easily lead to the inconsistency that prevents forging solid virtues and convictions in the person.

One concrete example is pornography. There are some who fall into this vice even though it was not their primary intention to do so.

But their long-term internet exposure made them vulnerable to pornography because their wills were softened by ads, images, videos and links that triggered their sensual curiosity and eventually leading them to porn.

How many of these “I-wish-I-hadn’t-clicked-at-all” episodes could have been avoided if one refrained from using the internet after six. But the idea behind this diet is not to only overcome a vice like porn.

It is meant to help one go beyond the confines of mediocrity and laziness and explore other richer possibilities involving family life, hobbies, real social engagements, and more.

Ultimately, with grace and personal effort, this diet will contribute to a balanced body-soul lifestyle ensuring that we fruitfully engage our duties to God and neighbor.