Resilience Cannot be Achieved when you Practice Avoidance

It was a hot day (as we've had many of this summer). I had the opportunity to get a run in after lunch before doing some work from home. The weather was NOT ideal, but I had the urge to go.

• Sunscreen ✅

• Sunglasses ✅

• Hat ✅

• Shorts ✅

• Light shirt ✅

Let's go!

The weather wasn't in extreme zones I should add. We're not talking the recent 40C with humidity hot. It's just hot (mid 20's feels like low 30's kinda heat). I didn't go for a long or far run. I didn't do a hard pace. I just went and moved my buddy in the summer sun.

Too Often we Practice Avoidance

Within the practice of avoidance falls "reasoning". Not in the helpful way - but I didn't want to call it "excuses". They're "reasons"; The "reasons" many folks have to NOT get their body outdoors to do, well, much of anything.

"It's too hot"

"It's too humid"

"It's too windy"

"It's too rainy"

"It's too cloudy and gloomy"

"It's too damp"

"It's too cold"

"It's too wet"

"I'm not a summer person"

"I'm not a winter person"

"I'm not an outdoors person"

...... 🫣

I know what you're thinking; "Hey Coach - Those ARE excuses!" Kinda, but no. I call them "reasons" because they've been used so many times (out loud or internally) for the person that they truly have become a REASON vs an excuse. It's also become the REASON why this person will have a harder and harder time building any sort of resilience and/or motivation in various lifestyle practices.

Avoidance is for Comfort

We avoid something so that we feel more comfortable;

• We don't go outside because it's much more comfortable inside

• We don't move our body because it's much more comfortable on this couch, chair or bed

• We don't think about our thoughts, emotions, mindset etc because it's much more comfortable to NOT think about them

• We don't talk about our struggles because it's more comfortable to ignore/avoid it

In the case of Mother Nature, she doesn't give two 💩's about the fact that you feel it's "too hot" or "too cold" or too WHATEVER!! To add to that, the longer you wait for "your ideal outdoors temperature" the BETTER you'll get at building the reasons NOT to go out there!

What this means is that waiting for "just the right temperature" is avoiding that little bit of discomfort that will actually DO YOUR BODY GOOD! The funny part is, we have total control over HOW LONG we stay outdoors for. If it's too hot, or too cold we have every ability to go inside in 10min for example. In today's modern world, we have the CHOICE of HOW MUCH discomfort we actually experience! We're in control of that. Well, mostly - There is that thing called EGO... 🙄

Comfort does not Create Resiliency in our Body

Michael Easter, author of "The Comfort Crisis" eludes to this modern day fact. And it's not that comfort is bad. It's great! However, since we are "All or Nothing" modern day humans, we take comfort so far that we ACTIVELY avoid even small levels of discomfort. Which ironically, even small doses of discomfort can build our resilience as I mentioned previously!

In the case of our South-Eastern Ontario, Canada weather / seasons, if we don't get out into "less than ideal" weather, just for small amounts of time even, we CANNOT ADAPT to becoming more used to various weather that nature throws at us. And as those of us in that part of the province knows, "ideal weather" days are few and far between. Leaving our health up to Mother Nature is NOT going to create positive change OR any sort of habit, that's for sure.

The Oxford dictionary defines RESILIENCE as:

The capacity to withstand or to recover quickly from difficulties.

Resilience in nature is always around us, if we open our eyes to the possibilities.

You may have read here on the Zen Blog multiple times, that our human bodies are amazingly adaptive. That's why we've survived so long. But the modern lifestyle treats the body as fragile almost, avoiding any little bit of discomfort we may encounter. And the best way to do so is AVOID IT.

However, you also may have read here that our body CAN'T ADAPT to anything if it doesn't do it consistently over a period of time. In this case, being able to adapt to various weather conditions; heat, cold, rain, snow, wind, dampness... These things will ALWAYS make us miserable, sedentary and practicing avoidance if we don't EXPERIENCE them even just a little bit.

It Really Doesn't Need to be Much

I had this discussion with a client just recently actually. He was commenting how he liked my quote from Wim Hof on my board at the studio. Wim Hof (aka "the Iceman") is a fascinating guy; period. Here's a quick synopsis from his website for you if you don't know who he is:

"Dutch extreme athlete Wim Hof got his nickname 'The Iceman' by breaking a number of records related to cold exposure including: climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in shorts, running a half marathon above the Arctic Circle barefoot, and standing in a container while covered with ice cubes for more than 112 minutes."

I know what you're thinking; "Oh hell no!"... Don't worry, I'm with you. 😂 But that's what I love about people like Wim Hof. He's said it himself, he puts his body into these extreme situations to help show us what the human body is capable of!! Not only that, he helps teach how to tolerate these situations utilizing the body's amazing chemistry and physiology. It's incredible! Wim was doing such amazing things that scientists eventually started to say; "Hey, we need to do some research with this guy". Now most of us have at least heard rumblings of the benefits of cold therapy for example. Wim himself shares that we DON'T have to go to these extremes to receive the benefits these types of discomforts bring. We can do small things and they will have a great impact on our wellbeing.

The message from Wim (and others) is the same as Michael Easter says in "The Comfort Crisis" ...

Discomfort helps us GROW, ADAPT and CHANGE. Period.

What can we do?

As always, in health, there are plenty of approaches and options for us. You have a blank canvas. Exercise is in this equation as well; People who move their body more are able to not only understand their body's capabilities wherever they're at, but they also recognize the difference between "pain" and "fatigue", "muscle fatigue" and "injury" etc.

Here's a few things you can do TODAY to begin to practice building RESILIENCE by adding a little bit of DISCOMFORT into your everyday;

👉 Spend 10min outside regardless of weather. Dress appropriately and go. If it's YOUR "ideal" day, stay out longer if you'd like. You'll quickly realize that "your ideal" begins to broaden as you spend more time in various conditions.

Reminder - Some days just aren't safe such as extreme heat and/or humidity, air pollution such as smoke from wildfires, icey conditions, thunderstorms...These are great examples of days to stay in our modern comforts and adjust what you do that day instead.

👉 Put yourself in a "less than ideal" situation such as going to an event with large crowds, calling a company like "Bell" 😂 or saying "hi" to a stranger on the street.

👉 Write down your thoughts / journal. Work to better recognize and understand your emotions, triggers etc rather than avoiding them and/or numbing them out with social media or screentime.

👉 Sit in silence for a few minutes. No distractions. No activity. Just sit. For many folks, this is uncomfortable for a variety of reasons.

👉 Try something new. Be a BEGINNER, so that you can practice the "beginners mind". This will help you in your practice of resilience and discomfort when you experience this often.

👉 Take a new route to work or home from work. We're creatures of habit without question, and we do things on autopilot more than we realize. Taking a new route may screw up your timing a bit and/or make you feel a bit strange... But it's a minor discomfort/change that could bring something new to your day(s).

👉 Turn the faucet to cold for the last 30sec of your daily shower. You don't need to swim frozen lakes like Wim Hof does to experience a bit of discomfort. Just finish your shower (or even start it) with a bit of cold water.

(Reminder - as mentioned earlier, you're in total control. You can make it "just a little bit colder" if you want rather than going straight to freezing AND you can stop ANYTIME you want.)

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Trying NEW things can be hard. Connecting with a Coach to guide you can help you make that effort a bit more do-able in various ways and offer the support and guidance to make it feel much EASIER. If you want to explore building your resiliency in every day health and lifestyle, connect with 'Coach D' and let's start the conversation.