Non-Muslim AMERICAN Girl FASTS for RAMADAN for the First Time!
hello hello hello my beautiful people my name is nikki novoselski and i am a traveling yogi mindset mentor life coach and spiritual nomad i'm also a very curious person and i love traveling the world with an open heart and mind and putting myself in other people's shoes diving into culture learning languages learning about other religions and just how other people live so today is a very special video all of my videos are special but today specifically i will be celebrating ramadan i know i will be fasting for one day i know it's only one day and muslims typically celebrate ramadan for 30 days the ninth month of the muslim calendar but i will just be doing one day to understand how other people live and other religions especially here in indonesia so i specifically am in bali indonesia and bali is a very unique island because it's actually a hindu island in this muslim country of indonesia and indonesia has the largest population of muslims in the world it makes up 13 of the world's muslim population so i'm an american and there are many muslims in america there's about 3.45 million muslims in america but that only makes up about 1.1 of the population so living here in indonesia surrounded by a muslim community there's about 87 of the population here in indonesia is muslim i figured it would be the perfect opportunity to learn about ramadan so today i will be fasting just for one day but we're gonna see how this goes so i can really understand and dive deep into the culture you ready to come fast with me well i'll do the fasting you do the coming along for the ride sound good let's go okay it's 4 45 in the morning woke up at 4 30. i'm exhausted and not hungry or thirsty at all but we are doing it we are gonna eat because if we don't it's gonna be a long day ahead of us so this first meal is called sahor where you eat before the sun rises because when the sun rises you will have to fast no eating no drinking so we're trying to drink all the water and eat all the food i actually would crave a salad they say to eat a lot of vegetables a lot of protein we don't have vegetables we have fruits but we do have protein we're gonna be eating some protein bars and some fruits and with some peanut butter and cheese so that's what we got today and we're going to see how it lasts us sahur breakfast [Music] so they say that people's sleep schedules and eating schedules get completely messed up which is true because we are waking up super early so this is such a change i can't believe that during this month it's like such a huge change to get used to and i can only imagine doing this for the whole month so we're doing it for one day and i'm sure i would get used to it but right now it's a big change [Music] i thought i wasn't that hungry but now i'm eating things meeting all the things normally my eating schedule i normally don't eat until like 11 or 12 like i fast until 11 or 12 and then i eat pretty early again and then so i fast during the night so this is like completely flipped but now that i'm eating early and then i'll eat late and then i'm fasting during the day so my body is just gonna be like what is going on here but that's all part of the experience this looks like a hurricane came in and destroyed the place of all this food all right we drank a lot of water we had a lot of food my stomach is full and i'm gonna go back to sleep so that i can wake up feeling refreshed and hopefully won't feel hungry until way later let's let's go back to sleep i'll see you in a couple hours so i'm not fasting alone i'm with my gal and adventure buddy susan so we had to wake up at 4 30 a.m this morning for our first meal before sunrise because it's we can't eat during the day we can't eat when the sun is up so we were we were quite uh quite tired quite tired this morning yeah we were tired so we woke up at 4 30 had sahor which is the first meal that you eat and we had that we had so many snacks and then we went back to bed woke up at like 11 10. woke up at 10 and it is now 11 and how are we feeling yeah i'm missing water and i'm really messing my coffee that's for me the main things like food is now still quite okay yeah but just water and coffee i know i'm actually so if anyone knows me i am like susan laughs at me because i guzzle water like it's my job and so not having water is difficult all right we'll check in more times throughout the day but we're gonna go meditate and pray yeah we're doing that five times today all right we're gonna do a bit of a walk and talk here so because i've never celebrated ramadan before i had to do a lot of research i'm just going to share with you some of the basics that i learned that i found fascinating and of course this is not expensive so if you have more information from me about ramadan please post it in the comments i'd love to hear from you first things first is that it is the ninth month of the muslim calendar and it starts with the crescent moon and it ends the cycle ends on the next crescent moon which i believe is beautiful and fascinating so you cannot eat when the sun is up so most people eat a sahor which is the meal before sunrise so i actually woke up at 4 30 this morning to eat my sahur i had lots of nuts i had some fruit peanut butter and bananas i had some cheese and some bread and also it's a time of introspection and being very charitable and so by fasting you're really going inward and it's also about self restraint so no smoking no drinking no sexual activity and no bad behavior so just really being a good person during this time and meditating praying getting closer to the quran and studying the religion ramadan is so fascinating because it really is about the self restraint for fasting during the day so no water no food and then we're gonna break the fast later with iftar so they say to eat some dates before iftar and then you can get into your big meal [Music] so meditation and prayer is a huge part of ramadan it's all about introspection and getting closer to god and religion so i will be meditating five times today and i'm already feeling a little light-headed by not drinking water if you know me i guzzle so much water throughout the day and so that is what's getting to me most the food it's fine it's just the water where i'm feeling a little like but here we go let's settle in let's be introspective here [Music] surprisingly ramadan is reminding me of yoga why well because with ramadan you're setting an intention to be introspective to not eat to not drink water while the sun is up you're really trying to be charitable and get closer to yourself and get closer to god and in yoga we do the same thing we set an intention of how we want to feel where our mind wants to go how to connect to our body and because it is said where the mind goes the energy flows so i'm such a big proponent of mindset so i really enjoy this aspect of ramadan and if you're interested in learning more about mindset i have a whole mindset course on how to change your thoughts to change your lives but other than that it's so interesting to really have this aspect flowing in to ramadan i am already a little bit tired and my body is very confused because we ate at 4 30 this morning and my body is like wait hold on are we eating again why aren't we drinking water just very fatigued and the mind is very foggy as well so it's very interesting to see how the body feels and that people do this for 30 days i'd love to hear your experience if you celebrate ramadan please let me know how you feel and your thoughts on all of it i love connecting with you and i love learning from you and we got a couple more hours so i'm going to continue meditating and i'm going to continue chilling and i'm getting ready for iftar that's for sure [Music] so this is such a beautiful place to be able to fast and participate in ramadan so i feel so grateful it's currently 2 30 and we got a lot of brain fog just very tired want to rest working is not my top priority resting is my priority i really want to down a whole glass of cold water and i just want some vegetables a big plate of cooked vegetables sounds amazing i'm so impressed for everyone who participates in ramadan for 30 days it is a lot you're definitely changing your whole schedule and your sleep schedule and your eating schedule and it's a lot for a month so kudos to you hats off to you this is incredible i'm very impressed and i can understand now what you're dealing with through the day i don't want to look at pictures or videos of food or water because i'm just ugh i want it however we're not doing as bad as i thought we would be doing i still have some energy to me making these videos and to just be hanging out so proud of myself and i'm happy to be in this great mindset in this great place practicing ramadan miss susan all right we only have two more hours to go we can do it right two and a half i don't know three who knows okay we're not gonna think about it yeah although we're thinking about it thinking about it way too much yeah that's the thing don't think about the elephant in the room and then you think about the elephant we're thinking about water and food okay i made it back to changu and i'm going to meet up with some friends also breaking fast with me for iftar at the beach in a little bit but that was like an hour and 30 minutes of driving and i thought i was gonna be so tired and have such a bad headache and truthfully i didn't really notice it maybe it took my mind off of it driving i actually felt very clear-headed almost like enlightened in a way like a monk of sorts so i felt really good i was in a really great mood i thought i was going to be super hangry because normally i get really hungry and i get really angry but actually i was like flying and joyous and so happy so let me know when you fast what happens to you if you get hangry or if you get happy i'm curious to know how your fast goes but we are going to break fast soon and drink some water and have some dates and just talk about ramadan with some other muslim friends and i am so excited for that water water yep i feel a headache coming on so hoping to drink all of the water soon and uh let's go to the beach yeah all right of course i'm with susan still and we're gonna break the fast shortly yeah susan how are you doing not good goose over there oh oh no oh no we need someone get her some water someone get her water asap okay we're running to the beach running to the beach now [Music] okay we made it to the beach and i met up with some friends we have anam from east java say hello hello yes did i say that right and you're from sarabaya yeah so they're breaking them fast with us and we're going to start off with some water and ask more questions and find out more about ramadan it's 6 21 that means the sun is going down that means we can drink water and eat some food here we go lots of water are you ready for some water oh you have your own little drink ready cheers i'm so excited to drink water okay so i'm learning we have to say and then drink all the water and then i can eat the steak i love dates i'm obsessed with dates okay here we go bismillah [Music] never tasted so good so nice okay now yeah really sweet oh my gosh it is like really really sweet i love dates and i love them even more right now you both were saying that fasting for the first day is the hardest day yeah yeah how about you it's fasting for the first day the hardest day so if i keep going for all 30 days it will be fine yeah because the first two days shocking your body is like adapting to you okay so if i were to keep going i probably would get used to it okay i don't think i will keep going for the 30 days but it's good to know that if i were yeah i could do it for one week maybe that'll be my next video doing the full ramadan maybe let me know okay so we broke the fast with some water and some dates i heard you're not supposed to have too many days because there's so much sugar but i love dates so that's good that might be difficult but also at the end of ramadan there is a ceremony called idol fitri so from what i know you celebrate for three days okay some people you can celebrate for one or two days depending on the family and location right yes correct what does your family do usually we will just uh on the first day of the celebration we will do the prayer in the morning like around six or seven a.m okay and then
after that we will just gather together with the family and then uh we will do this i don't know if it is weird for you but here sometimes we will just sit together and then maybe talk to your parents or your your relatives and say forgiveness to each other for example lovely i will ask you like nikki i'm so sorry for everything that i've done this year and then we will just forgive each other and then like we will start over wait that's beautiful yeah i love that and then your neighbors can also come over and then we will have special meal together and we have this meal how to say these dishes yeah called ketupat sometimes we will eat it with oppor or chicken you know uh chicken curry yes yes together with ketupat or some other food and some other snacks that you can only find during this time of the year okay that sounds amazing that's great okay so you have like certain dishes that you have yes you say forgiveness yes that's lovely that's so beautiful so it's a time of introspection and then at the end it's a time of forgiveness to others yeah i love that oh well thank you for sharing thank you anything else to know about ramadan not really but maybe you would want to feel it in a different way because every island or every cities in indonesia might have different traditions i'm not sure about bali because i've this is my first ramadan and it will be educated in bali okay but yeah we can experience it together yeah we should do it together oh we'll have to do it you know v3 uh video as well yeah that would be lovely well thank you so much for sharing okay i'm also here with zidan hi guys and he is from i'm from jakarta jakarta what's part of jakarta i'm from south japan yeah yeah you're like yeah that's cool okay so i want to ask you what does ramadan mean for you like what do you during ramadan like what how do you celebrate yeah uh for me it's very special month because we always do it ramadan things with our families like you know just yeah maybe we do it once for a year so it's very special for all muslim in the world yeah yeah do you feel like you're go you really go inward and like you're more introspective or how do you feel i just feel blessing yeah yeah gratitude yeah these managers feel blessing maybe uh all the muslims in the world uh feel like me too yeah because it's a special month guys it is a special month so i love that you just feel like more connected to yourself to others yes grateful oh i love that well i'm so grateful that i get to spend this day of ramadan with you so thank you so this is your first experience right yeah this is my first experience fasting and doing everything about ramadan i honestly didn't know much about it until like this past week when i started doing more and more research so i'm yeah it's been really cool it's really cool how do you feel about about yeah this first first time i wasn't sure what to expect i thought i was gonna be like super angry super tired super just like annoyed that i had to do it but honestly i was i was like really excited to do it and i was a little bit tired but it was really cool to like learn more about it and like see other people's perspectives because i was doing it myself you know so it was a really cool experience amazing well thanks for joining me wow it's been such a full day not a food but of love of introspection of gratitude and i'm so grateful that i got to experience ramadan by myself with susan and also with other indonesians it has been absolutely incredible so if you like this video please hit that like button subscribe to my channel for more videos with yoga and culture and traveling and leave a comment below i'd love to hear from you so thank you so much for watching and i'll see you next time much love bye [Music]
2022-05-02 23:45
