Ancient Wisdom for a Modern World
After my ice bath yesterday I took a nap, dropped my girlfriend off at the airport, came back and ate dinner, watched Skyfall on Netflix while having a few beers, and then went to sleep. Spending Friday night alone relaxing felt good, but it only felt good because I accomplished what I wanted to with
In the Myth of Sisyphus, Sisyphus attempts to make man immortal by chaining up Death in defiance of the Gods. Death is eventually freed, and as a punishment, Sisyphus is condemned to push a giant rock up a mountain for eternity. At the top of the mountain, the rock will roll down hill and he will have
I’ve become a big fan of the hot shower after the ice bath. It completely beats shivering your butt off for 40 minutes. If you are planning on replicating my ice bath experiment, I suggest going through the first few weeks without a hot shower, and then the second few weeks with a hot shower.
Because I am in my last week of Stoicism, during my ice bath yesterday I began thinking about my upcoming Ancient Wisdom months. Many of them will be rooted in religion rather than philosophy, and central to religion, is of course, God. Based on my admittedly amateurish interpretation of Stoic principles, I get the sense
I only have eight ice baths to take for my month of Stoicism. They have not gotten easier or harder after the first week. There are some minor variations in water temperature, but overall I’ve gotten used to them. I know what to expect, and I could probably continue them indefinitely. Though there are probably
My ice bath really froze my toes off yesterday. They did not achieve comfortably numb phase; they stayed in the “this really stings I can’t wait until this is over” phase. I took a warm shower after the ice bath yesterday to accelerate my warm-up process and it felt extra awesome. If you really want
My 20th ice bath felt warm. It must have had something to do with the beautiful 50-degree weather outside. The fact that 50-degree weather feels warm is a testament to the practice of exposing yourself to cold temperatures. We have had some cold days here in DC, so when it’s 50 degrees out, it feels
Yesterday tested my patience. I had to drive my girlfriend to her doctor’s appointment in the morning, which required me to feel rushed in my morning routine (gym + scheduled writing). There were annoying drivers on the road, one of which honked at me for not forcing myself into oncoming traffic quickly enough. I then
Yesterday during my ice bath I couldn’t help but think about what the Jesuit priest said to me, “I wonder what God has planned for you.” It was exciting and terrifying. Exciting because maybe God has an awesome life planned for me. Terrifying because the statement implied it was out of my hands. I’ve felt
I watched the first few minutes of the State of the Union the day before yesterday, and I read some of the day-after commentary on the State of the Union. Of course, some of the commentary irritated me, so during my ice bath, I thought about all those times I’ve participated in asinine political conversations