Yesterday I celebrated my 50th birthday with friends. Although we only had a few glasses of wine, I had a hard time waking up, because instead of going straight to bed, as neuroscientist Andrew Huberman recommended, I stayed up late reading greetings from kind people. Worse, the day before I had thoughtlessly suggested meeting at the tatami at 9 a.m., which I now regretted. I don’t know about you, but for me sleep deprivation is worse than a hangover. The feeling in my body is like jet lag, as if I had just arrived in Hong Kong.
Whenever in this situation, I remember the advice of podcaster Joe Rogan, who, no matter how awful he feels after a long flight, the first thing he does is look for the hotel gym or go on a savage trail run in the hills. This sounds like torture to the body, because instead of lifting heavy weights it wants to curl up in a dark hole and wall up the entrance. But, as is often the case in life, the best solutions are paradoxical.
So it is here - a voluntary step into discomfort brings relief. Jet lag causes a person’s circadian rhythm to become out of sync with the natural circadian rhythm, resulting in fatigue, insomnia, headaches, loss of appetite, etc. And a strong physical load, figuratively speaking, reloads the body and integrates it into the local spatial and temporal context.
Walking out of the gym today, I also felt more awake and refreshed. Remembering all the cases when I had doubts about going or not going to the workout, in 9 out of 10 cases the “after” feeling was much better than the “before” feeling. The medieval alchemists were right when they said, “In sterquiliniis invenitur”, which means, “You will find everything in the dirt.” It is where one absolutely does not want to look that one should look for all the answers.
Yours sincerely,
-Alexander
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