"Ramadan" A Meal for Your Brain

Your brain is who you are. A constellation of past experiences, hopes, dreams, and knowledge, receiving input from the outside world through your senses, and simultaneously changing that very world through your interactions. It is thus shaped by, but yet shapes the world around it. It is constantly changing with every second, as every experience you have alters its physical and chemical structure.
The Quran is a guide for the human race, a guide that prescribes behaviors that, when followed, will benefit the individual and society as a whole. It is thus a manual for our brain.  The manual prescribes fasting as way to increase our Taqwa (consciousness of Allah):

“Oh you who have attained to faith! Fasting is ordained for you as it was ordained for those before you, so that you might remain conscious of God: …” (Quran 2:183).

This simple command presents the ideal behavior modification paradigm, and the behavioral modification results in habit formation over an approximately 30-day course.  The psychology of habits will not be reviewed here exhaustively, but amongst the benefits of habits is that they are mentally efficient. This means that one can do other things in parallel while performing the habit. I will argue that Ramadan presents the ideal “do-it-yourself habit guide” or “template” which we can use to effect change in all facets our lives, albeit with the help of Allah, as the Quran tells us:

“Verily, God does not change people's condition unless they change their inner selves;…” (Quran 13:11).

From the verse above, the first step however is ours. So, why is Ramadan the ideal template and training for the rest of our habit forming lives? From the literature on psychology, the key step to establishing a new habit is to create an implementation intention. I put in bold implementation intention since it is a key term - psychology jargon so to speak. So as you all know, you get up for Fajr, and explicitly state you are making your intention to Allah that you will fast. This is the implementation intentionclear and simple, and who of all entities to make the intention to but Allah? It is kind of hard to break that intention - right?  Right! So immediately Allah is helping us to help ourselves.

Other key elements to establishing a habit is that they have specific cues that link the habit to a specific response or responses.  So for example, sunrise is a time cue that is linked to awakening, praying, and making your intention to fast. Sunset is a time cue to breaking one’s fast. In between, there are specific responses to the intention you made, no eating, drinking, or sex.

Concurrently, one is to be constantly mindful of one’s behavior, to be patient despite possibly being a bit cranky (one might be mentally fatigued as your brain may be a bit low on glucose -  this is not an excuse, as you have to behave properly regardless), and to remain conscious of Allah. For those of you who have fasted during the long summer fasts, you know that when your mouth is super dry and you see a water fountain, it is impossible not to think of Allah!

So plain and simple, Ramadan is a template that all Muslim’s have the privilege to partake in early in their life, learn from, and then apply to other aspects of their behavior they wish to change. It is but one of the myriad of prescriptions in the Quran to train our brain and establish good habits.

Through the establishment of good habits (please see the Quran for an exhaustive list of good habits to implement), we increase our mental efficiency, ruminate less in uncertainty, and can thus spend more time applying ourselves to aiding those around us. So when you think of it, Ramadan is like a really healthy meal for your brain. A meal that contains all those yummy ketone bodies, habit forming skills, and opportunities to remember Allah. Insha Allah enjoy it, and all its benefits!