Abhinay gifts me some of the best books and this was one of them. Author Michael Easter begins the book with his out-of-comfort zone activity - joining pal Donnie Vincent, a bow hunter and documentary filmmaker who loves the wilderness, and his cinematographer William Altman, on a 33 day hunt of a caribou herd in the Alaskan wilds far away from civilisation. Donnie spends 6 months at a time alone in the Alaskan Wild (and loves it) and his documentary 'The River Divided' is proof of his work. While writing about his crazy journey in the cold, wet, wild, hunting caribou, Easter tells us about the comfort crisis we are all in and how it is making us less of what we are capable of. I fully agree. Easter meets a bunch of experts in various fields and cites many studies and experiments to drive home his points. I have not mentioned them here but only gave a gist of their conversations with Easter and their insights.
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Easter points out that most of our modern problems are about the slightest discomfort (not getting WiFi, running water, late cab, something not working) as opposed to real discomfort (like hunger, physical struggle). This 'comfort creep' shrinks us an reduces our capacities. To grow to our potential and live fully we must embrace Misogi, the Japanese term for going through really hard things as a process of purification. Since we do not have any hard things in our life we must pick and choose them to toughen ourselves up - like the hard things must be 10x your capability so you are stretched mentally, spiritually, physically. When we put ourselves through these Misogi - it stretches limits, we have a clear goal - it is something akin to being in the flow state.
Of course Easter says there are two rules - Rule 1 - it has to be really hard and Rule 2 - don't die while doing it. Doing really hard things means you have a 50% chance of failing. (Reminded me of 'Measure what Matters' by John Doerr where he speaks of the concept of OKRs which are 10x goals.) Easter says that mortals benefit from epic physical trails (he cites examples of how some tribes send men out to hunt a male lion as a rite of passage!) Simply put, the only things we look back with some pride are our hardships that we have endured and have stretched us.
So pick your Misogi and get going to toughen up and live your life more fully. The three stages of Misogi are Separation, Transition and Incorporation. The idea is that what does not kill you makes you stronger. We toughen up with adversity.
Easter explores the idea of why time seems to expand or contract. When we are doing something new, our experience seems longer because we are experiencing expanded time. So doing something new which makes us fully involved is one way to mark time.
City living depresses us. One needs to build capacity to be alone. He urges us to rediscover boredom because it helps us to be alone, to find creative bursts within us. Try to be away from a screen and be OK with boredom. (We are so addicted to our cell phones - the average American he says touches his phone 2617 times in a time and has 2.5 hours of screen time.) From 2000-15 the average attention span of people fell by 33% and 90% of this is due to screen time.
Easter says we must deal with boredom (don't reach for your screen) and find ways to be productive. Allow mind wandering. He suggest being out in the nature (without your phone) - called forest bathing - 20 minutes outside, 3 times a week - is known to drop stress levels. No phones is a rule on these times. If you cannot get out into the open, putting plants in the office, having a view of nature helps. Time in wild spaces is the most beneficial of the lot - so the prescribed time for greatest stress release is 5 hours a month in the wild.
He also suggests being comfortable with silence. He talks of the Orfield labs which has a room that has complete silence - a state that makes people very uncomfortable and want to get out of it. We cannot handle silence. But silence heals. People who listened to natural sounds like sounds of water reduced their stress levels significantly. Just 2 minutes of silence relaxes.
He then speaks of hunger. 70% of Americans are obese which takes an average of 5%-20% off your life. To be healthy, he suggests tracking your food - how much and what you eat, weigh calories, daily routines, sleep schedules, stress and energy levels, daily weight, work outs and step counts. This data will help in being aware of the input and output. We tend to eat more when we are stressed. Hunger is of two types - real hunger vs reward hunger. (He suggests we walk instead of eating.) Find what stresses you when you reach out to eat more. The final solution - eat anything long as you keep track of calories - 2000 calories per day are prescribed. The average plate should have a quarter of animal protein, a quarter of white grains and a half of vegetables or fruits. Complement this with having 500 calorie days for two days, or 700 calorie days for 5 days, having 16 hour fasting windows so your body gets to the autophagy state where it can take out the trash in the body. The body needs 15-16 hours to metabolise food (so skip breakfast or dinner). If we cut breakfast and have an early dinner our body gets 12-16 hour window to cleanse. End game - be hungry - it burns fat and keeps you healthy. Fast as much as you can.
Easter suggests we think about death every day. We are insignificant in the passage of time. In our 13.8 billion years of evolution plotted on a calendar year for reference, humans have appeared on the scene on the 31st of December at 11.59.33 pm! We are that insignificant! In Bhutan, he meets monks who look at death as a normal thing and they in fact suggest that one must think about death three times a day - morning, afternoon and evening. (One of the monks is the author of the book 'The Fine Art of Living and Manifesting a Peaceful Death'). We are all in the process of dying right now. The best way to be more aware of our life and death is to be mindful. Remember that we are all heading towards the cliff and we will all fall off the cliff - some sooner and some later. We just do not know when we will fall off though. Be OK with this state of impermanence. We suffer because we try to hold on to that which is changing. Be curious about death, do not cling to life. Being aware of impending death helps us prioritise.
In Misogi we come to a point when we are convinced that we have nothing left - yet find some more gas. The cavemen would have 200 minutes of exercise per day versus the now prescribed for health which is 150 minutes a week! The cavemen were hunting and foraging and could carry weights of 50 pounds and more easily. Easter advocates the Ruck Shuffle - puts a 45 pound steel plate in the back pack and walks. Rucking is strength and cardio rolled in one.
Overall Easter says we must put ourselves through physical discomfort. There is no such thing as too much exercise. Exercising 7-12 hours a week reduces heart disease by 25% and cancer by 22%. Walking is good (when we run a 150 pound person loads 1400 pounds on their knees as against 470 pounds when walking). Carry weights like your suitcases etc he says, its good for you.
Easter and his pals finally track down and shoot a caribou (Easter is given the honour), skin it, cut it up into portions, carry some 120 kgs of flesh around with them until their plane lands and then head back into civilisation - changed men certainly. There is some talk of whether hunting is ethical etc but each to his own. I liked what someone said - if you are a non-vegetarian do not make noise about the ethics of hunting.
I agree with all that he says - do things out of your comfort zone, get into the wild, be alone, be OK with silence, with boredom, eat healthy, stay hungry, be mindful, walk, carry weights, be aware of death - life gets better and fuller. I have started thinking of death to start with and am trying to stay hungry.
Thanks Abhinay. Lovely book. Now to find some real Misogis.
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