The Dopamine Fast

Remembering Our Village

Week 1:
Preparation

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A week of turning inward and preparing the ground: readying your life to hold the journey.

The first week is an exploration of what’s drawn you to this fast, and what you might choose to fast from. I’ll introduce you to the fast menu – lists that cover common territories that people choose to fast from during this experience. The menu categories will include:

• technology, social media, and the news
• food
• substances
• sexual experiences
• socializing

Alongside the menu, I’ll provide questions for you to ask yourself to help you uncover the dopamine triggers that are personal to you – the ones no one but you could name. You can shape the fast to be as gentle or challenging as you like; for many, just releasing a few dopamine triggers will provide a major challenge, especially while tending to families, work, and the other responsibilities that continue throughout the fast. This week is about discovering how you want to design your fast, honouring both the constraints of your life and what you desire.

This week also includes physical preparations for the fast: letting the people around you know what you’re undertaking, identifying where your support lives, readying your kitchen, and beginning to entertain ideas and practices that might become doorways for depth and expansion.

We’ll gather on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday for optional Zoom calls to explore the daily focuses, with room for discussion and wondering. These calls may run up to an hour during this first week, and they’ll be recorded for anyone unable to attend.

Remembering Our Village

Weeks 2 & 3:
The Fast

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Two weeks for stillness and homecoming: the noise falls away, energy comes home, and what has been trying to get your attention can emerge.

Our gatherings take on a quieter shape during these weeks. I call them The No-Commitment Book Club: unrecorded calls of up to half an hour, built around a passage, poem, or quote. I’ll read it aloud and anyone who’d like to reflect on it is welcome to. We won’t be sharing personal stories or comparing notes on how the fast is going, beyond what the reading itself stirs up.

Why so quiet? Because discovering what happens when your own voice – and the voices of those around you – begin to still is a vital part of this experience, as is meeting the boredom and discomfort that will inevitably arrive. These gatherings are for feeling the solidarity and strength of the group while honouring your sovereign experience.

Each day, I’ll offer you a new place to focus on, or a jumping-off point for your own exploring. Each one is explained simply so that you can take it and make it your own as you sink into your fast. And of course, you’re invited to follow your own intuition and creativity throughout.

Remembering Our Village

Week 4:
Integration

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A week of return and celebration: unearthing what the fast revealed, sharing the stories, and letting the fast be carried forward as a beginning.

Our gatherings this week return to the shape of Week 1 – up to an hour long, recorded, and with room for conversation and sharing as you emerge from this retreat from ordinary life. As you unearth what was most significant for you during the fast, we’ll focus on celebrating what has unfolded, and imagining how it might be woven into the life that continues beyond the fast.

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Remembering Our Village

Fast Feedback

Reflections from past participants

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“In a world full of capital-driven sales pitches promising to help you get there faster, this offering is something cooked deliciously slow and worth savouring. Celena’s teaching is the antithesis to artificial, and will delight your senses while reawakening your innate intelligence. A sure fire way to remember why you care about the human experience in the first place.”

C.C.

“I am very grateful to have participated in a profound and deeply healing dopamine fast beautifully crafted and held by Celena. Her offering was a gentle invitation and guide back to deeper connection with myself and the world around me, and a much needed space of reflection and stillness.”

A.J.M.

“This dopamine fast was very confronting about my daily addiction to screens and social media. It showed what I needed more: in real life connection and community over artificial connection. The created container allowed me to be open, vulnerable and there is no judgement whatsoever. I highly recommend doing the fast – you might be surprised by what will be presented, all in a good way.”

F.V.M.

“What stood out for me was how significantly the intention of the fast itself and saying yes to it catalyzed so much sensation and underlying fears that I didn’t expect from what I thought was going to be just a small change. Through the experience I received so many deep insights around what I need to process surrounding unresolved stories and experiences that required a certain level of presence and space. I would definitely do it again as it feels more like a seasonal cleanse that just helps everything in my life become clearer and more accessible.”

F.A.

“It was incredible to be led through a well thought out, thorough, fasting ‘schedule’ and to meet regularly with a community of like minded yet deeply varied humans. The dopamine fast was a very satisfying experience that left me feeling hungry for more. More fasting, more communing, more connection, more self, more Spirit, and more inner stillness. I am grateful to have been able to join the first foray with a group of soulful humans and Celena to skillfully, heartfully guide us. Would I do it again? Oh yes.”

J.R.