Issue #1 - Unleash Your Bodymind
Get in kid! We are going to unleash our minds and our bodies. Invite your fellow warriors. We are in this together.
Harden is a place to learn, practice, and embody a developing philosophy to help us strengthen our minds and bodies for the upcoming world. Old philosophies are excellent for understanding the context of our existence but poor to make sense of the ever-changing world. We need to upgrade them and adapt them to the modern world. We need a solid and effective bridge between the old philosophies and new methods of solving problems that only high-performance people can access today.
The biggest driver of modern suffering is our utter surrender to digital technology to the detriment of our agency. Technology has strangled us from all directions making us feel unnecessarily helpless. Being excellent at solving our practical problems, we get trapped in a beautiful illusion that it’s equally effective at solving our human problems. This is an insidious illness - like a tapeworm in the intestines. The symptoms are only visible when the damage is already done. The worst part is we try to solve this problem with the technology itself. Like we are trying to beat the game created itself by the game. Only brands are benefitted from this facade of the band-aid, not individuals.
I do not despise technology. In fact, we can talk to each other, breaking the barrier of physical distance only because of its effectiveness and usefulness. The goal is to reclaim the agencies that we are losing faster than ever from the overpowering pull of technology. It is said that time is the most scarce resource available when in reality, attention is the real deal — specifically, the quality of attention. Remember the last time you wasted copious amounts of time because of divided attention.
It is said that time is the most scarce resource available when in reality, attention is the real deal — specifically, the quality of attention.
In our fast-paced working environment riddled with technological aids, we are on the verge of losing our minds faster than ever. In riding the digital wave, we not only offloaded our thinking, but we also stopped being mindful of our minds and bodies. In addition to the external stimuli, our attention spans have reduced our well-being too. To address that, we have invented patchwork methods. People throw mental health in the digital void like any other regular word. They use it more for relatability and less for serious concern. We are losing lives and developing chronic conditions because of our degrading brain hygiene. But nobody is thinking seriously and with empathy about this problem. We have given up on this fight against this insidious worm developing inside our social gut, which has made us delusional to treat it as a friend of humanity. Everyone has just accepted that this is how we have to lead a modern life.
I have been talking to people from different demographic on social media from various walks of life. A lot of them are not at peace in their life. I feel a sense of no control in their hands over their circumstances. They feel helpless. They just cannot find anyone or any place to turn to. They have accepted that this is how life has to be. They try to justify this with their convoluted understanding of old philosophies and pop culture references — even after mildly being aware that that crap will definitely not help. Rather than looking inwards, they look outwards for hope. No one is at fault. But the unfortunate reality outside is that everybody is selling band-aids. And you have to reel yourself to the narrative popularised by them. The cycle never breaks. Narcissistic coping is a useless tool. Even a dead rock is more nifty than it.
The immediate focus group of this vision is people who work in high-stress and high-leverage jobs. People who do not take an active interest in improving their mental, physical and spiritual lives. I call this new philosophy and practice mind and body hardening. The goal is to spot what is destructive in the modern world, understand its mechanisms and targets, conquer it and attain peace consistently. Peace must be turned into a habit rather than a desire. Now, peace of mind here does not mean that you stop having fun in life. We are not promoting a sage or a monk’s life journey here. We simply cannot afford that. What we can do is embody and own the mindset nonetheless. Our minds and bodies are way more capable of handling progressive stress than we give them credit for. And through constant challenges that are generative rather than destructive, they get harder, better, faster, and stronger.
The goal is to spot what is destructive in the modern world, understand its mechanisms and targets, conquer it and attain peace consistently.
Keep in mind that we are not missing passion. In fact, our ambitions in life have increased. Because digital technology is a great equalizer of opportunities. We are trying to discern the subtle gaslighting that it impinges upon us. We build abstract digital worlds to the detriment of our innocent natural senses. When we lose touch with our instincts, we lose the vocation for powerful expressions. In the end, we are left with stimulating ourselves with endless streams of memes and random multimedia. Observe how people talk these days. There is no depth. Their speech is teeming with internet meme references which results in flat self-expression. This is insulting to our emotions lying beneath the layers of absurd memetic vocabulary. And when we lose the ability of powerful expression, we lose a sense of purpose in life. Memes have become the marijuana that the Internet smokes.
We build abstract digital worlds to the detriment of our innocent natural senses. When we lose touch with our instincts, we lose the vocation for powerful expressions.
So, let us strap our belts. We are going on a fight with this illness. We will win no matter what modern life throws at us. And we are going to do it by hardening ourselves and our fellow humans. Remember, the fight is not solitary. The worm is too big to fight alone. And not even worth it fighting alone. Because what is the use of hardening yourself if you cannot help your fellow humans who are suffering in who knows what ways. We need constant fuel. When you run out of fuel from your own suffering, you draw it from the suffering of your fellow warriors. See you at the next checkpoint.
What thoughts arose inside you after reading this. Share with me at letsharden@gmail.com or DM me on Twitter @poetofgrindset. Don’t hold back. I assure you that I’ll get back to you. But you have to take the first step!
We are in this together and we are going to win ourselves.