Be Cold

Being comfortable with discomfort is a keen and convenient superpower.

Have you ever been really cold, maybe outside in a winter storm? You do all sorts of weird little things: your teeth chatter, you shiver and shake, maybe you even dance around a little.

You know what? None of that stuff makes you any warmer. In fact, some of it makes you colder!

(The best thing you can do if you’re stuck outside and it’s cold is to find a place that isn’t windy, and then just hold still. Your body will warm the air around you and it will become an insulator, but if you disrupt the warm air by bopping around, it’s less effective.)

A long time ago, I was stuck in that situation. I tried something new; I told myself to just “be cold.” As in, don’t try to fight it. I relaxed my body, purposefully letting my shoulder and neck muscles go slack. I let my jaw go loose so my teeth wouldn’t chatter. And you know what? I was cold. But that’s it. I was as cold as I was before, but I was significantly less disturbed by it. I wasn’t in pain or uncomfortable. I was just cold.

Our reactions to negative stimuli aren’t always counters to those stimuli. We think they are, because we never really stop to question their effectiveness. But frequently we just do stuff when we’re tired, angry, lonely, hungry, upset, etc., and that stuff isn’t doing anything except making us more uncomfortable.

Sometimes the thing to do is just be cold until it passes. At worst, you don’t waste effort and add to your own discomfort. At best, you think more clearly and find an actual solution to your problem – which is always better than being left in the cold.