“What a long ass day,” you grumble as you get home from work.
You had to wake up early to snowblow out your garage.
The snowblower didn’t want to start right away.
Your supervisor was absent so your grandboss had to give your monthly performance — and butchered you.
And now you almost didn’t make it in the garage because of another fresh batch of snow. The damn plow trucks pushed a two foot berm of snow and ice up for you to go full-Jeep-Advertisement over the top of just to park.
You walk into your house.
When at work (and asleep) you always turn the heat down to 65…
“Brrrr,” you shudder as you crank it up to 72 — your usual cozy temp.
Grabbing a blanket and popping a frozen pizza in, you snuggle your doggo and enjoy some reruns of The Office.
— — —
This isn’t a daily meditation to tell you “you’re soft” or to tell you to “toughen up!” but rather is to invite you to try increasing your resilience.
Imagine: each day when you get home, instead of cranking that thermostat up to 72 right away to take the chill out…
…What if you sat on the couch for just 5 or 10 minutes and meditated? (Or prayed, as I prefer)
What if each day you set your alarm just 1 minute earlier? Or even 1 per week? Could you get yourself up at 6?
5?
…4:30?
How about that orgasmic and shudder-inducing first cup of coffee in the morning? Think you can drink a cup of water, first, and wait for it until after your morning shower?
I bet you can.
Maybe not every day. But, I believe in you and that you can invite small doses of patience and resilience into your daily life in various, consistent ways.
What little inconveniences can you let in tomorrow? What small tests of your patience can you willingly yoke yourself with?
You may be weak. But you don’t need to stay weak. You can be stronger than you think.
And you are certainly stronger than you are allowing yourself to be.
Follow for daily philosophical meditations.
These are distillations from my coming book “YouDaimonia: the Ancient Philosophy of Human Flourishing.”