Hi there,
Have you ever done something so HARD it defined your entire year?
Ran a marathon. Started a business. Ended one.
Quit drinking. Faced something you’d been avoiding for years.
Enter MISOGI: The ancient Japanese Shinto ritual of purification through extreme challenge.
Traditionally, it’s about cleansing the body and spirit under icy waterfalls.
But today, it’s evolved into a yearly rite – doing ONE thing so brutally challenging, it redefines your limits and echoes through the other 364 days.
I’ve got TWO this year.
1. My five day fast (completed).
2. I entered the Sunshine Coast 70.3 triathlon in 48 days time.
(2km swim, 90km bike, 21km run and… my first triathlon in 16 years).
“But you’re 56…why even bother?” Because resilience atrophies.
You must flex the muscle of resilience regularly or you WILL become fragile.
Did you know not all dopamine is created equal? When we struggle and overcome we create “hard” dopamine which lasts for a long time and resets the reward pathways.
The holy grail of a good life is knowing how to change your behaviour. But for many of us, choosing the small changes “softly softly approach” just doesn’t work.
Does the following sound familiar?
“I’ll just do a short walk today.”
“I’ll only have two biscuits tonight instead of x”
“I’ll cut back on wine…(insert arbitrary feel good time frame).”
“But this week has been hard because…(insert external blame here).”
You’ve said it. We all have.
In a world peddling easy fixes such as pills and procedures first. Misogi flips how we set goals and think about health.
Like Shackleton’s Antarctic call for “hazardous journey… honour in case of success,”
It’s about choosing hard to unlock your potential.
What’s your Misogi this year? Let’s see what you’ve got!
