The Age of Indulgence

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For the past 3 months, I have been training for my first half marathon.

On August 10th, I will ferry to Angel Island nestled alongside Alcatraz and the Golden Gate to run 13.1 miles across steep, rugged terrain.

While I would love to express how much fun I have been having training, I am not going to sugarcoat it - running sucks.

Step after step, mile after mile, you trudge on, despite every part of your body telling you not to.

Your knees hurt, your lungs feel tight, and you oh so wish you were back on the couch watching the next episode of Bridgert-*cough cough* Yellowstone.

Yet, I can’t help but feel excited for my next run as soon as I have finished the last.

While I hate how it makes me feel in the moment, the sense of accomplishment afterward is almost euphoric.

I am not alone in this feeling.

Trail running, which is like normal running but more or less doing so up mountains, is exploding in the U.S., soaring 25.6 percent from 2021 to 2023.

14+ million Hoka-wearing psychos from New York to California have decided that putting themselves through this hellish activity is worth doing over and over again.

What gives?

The Dopamine Dilemma

Our world has never been more advanced than it is today - and it’s killing us.

The instant access we have to food, alcohol, drugs, adult content, and more is staggering.

At the click of a button or tap of a credit card, humans have anything they want and indulge as they see fit.

As people scroll through another video or pop their 3rd Zynn pouch, they are instantly rewarded for it: dopamine floods the brain, raising mood levels and happiness…. temporarily.

The problem is, when we become so entangled with this instantaneous pleasure, we can become addicted to it.

Stanford Professor Anna Lembke’s “Dopamine Nation”, describes the complete imbalance between pleasure and pain for humans today.

This world of luxury we live in compared to that of nomadic, early homo sapiens has spawned an entire populace that is addicted to dopamine.

As we interact with stimuli that please us, we feel good in the moment, but the crash afterward often hits harder.

The pleasure is followed by even greater pain.

Unsurprisingly, we progressively need more and more stimuli to reach that same ‘high’.

Abusing these sources can lead to detrimental outcomes.

Across the United States, we are seeing higher-than-ever rates of obesity, alcohol abuse, drug addictions, pornography use, and more regardless of age or demographic.

Many of these addictions, whether it be from food or fireball, can end relationships, lead to financial hardship, and significantly damage one’s health.

Another catastrophic outcome of this dopamine epidemic is that we are losing our ability to deal with discomfort.

When we swap a minor inconvenience or bout of negative feelings with another Snickers or Xanax, we become numb to the world around us, robbing ourselves of the mental fortitude and emotional maturity we will need when trauma really strikes.

Our ancient brains aren’t wired to deal with the indulgences available in the 21st century.

Fortunately, Lembke offers a solution - but not one you’ll like.

Finding Pleasure In Pain

We know that pleasure is often followed by pain, but what if we tried to flip the script? By seeking out suffering, could we end up better off?

In her book, Lembke makes the case that pursuing select activities that force us to experience trauma can help us reset and maintain our pleasure/pain balance.

Cold Plunges. Meditation. Weightlifting.

What do they all have in common?

They are uncomfortable! They force us to act in a way that goes against the grain.

Nietzsche (no, not Kelly Clarkson) put it best when he famously remarked that, “what does not kill us, makes us stronger”.

Our hedonistic culture has robbed humans of the very suffering needed to grow.

When we actively choose to do hard things, seeking out discomfort and pain, we can take back control of our bodies and minds.

Fascinatingly, out in the world exists a small but growing segment that is taking Lempke’s advice to heart in several ways.

Blissfully Bored

Probably the strangest and poorly named trend I have seen emerge in the last 3 months is the idea of “raw dogging” flights.

For many, flying is an incredibly boring and uncomfortable experience.

Sandwiched between strangers for hours on end without cell service has most travelers opting for the nearest book, movie, or neck pillow they can get their hands on.

A small subset has taken the opposite approach- abstaining from all forms of entertainment when flying.

Permitting themselves only to the flight tracker or safety manual in front of them, they sit in a Buddha-like state for the entirety of the flight. The videos of these hardcore flyers are hilarious.

Even the famous DJ Diplo got in on the action, posting his own clip “raw dogging” an 11-hour flight.

But does this actually have any benefits?

For many of its proponents, abstaining from normal forms of diversion during flights has resulted in a “dopamine detox”, providing peace of mind and a state of comfort normally unseen.

In numerous comments on these videos, others remark how flying without entertainment provides time to brainstorm new ideas and create plans for the future.

As Lembke suggests in her book, working through a period of controlled discomfort can lead to dopamine afterward (be it coming off the tarmac, or otherwise).

Running To Extremes

Aside from watching flight scanners for 7+ hours, people around the globe have taken to other forms of pursuing pain to improve their health and mind.

While I am just dipping my foot into the world of running, the sport has surged in popularity in recent years. Marathons across the country have seen record sign-ups, most rapidly in cities like SF, Chicago, and Boston.

Some runners, however, decided that 26.2 miles just wasn’t enough.

Sub-cultures have emerged in the world of running centered on challenges like ultramarathons (races over 26.2 miles) and tough mudders.

One of my best buddies, Ryder, just finished his second ultramarathon in Jackson, scaling 9,700+ vertical feet over 31 miles….insane!

To make the experience even more exciting, others have taken to ‘rucking’, where one uses a weighted backpack (similar to the military’s rucksack) while running.

Amidst a society plagued by pleasure, there is a growing cohort of people optimizing for pain.

In doing so, a whole community that is fitter, more determined, and better suited for the challenges that each day brings has emerged.

To clarify, running races in the mud or subjecting yourself to cold showers isn’t going to solve all your problems.

However, it’s worth looking in the mirror and asking yourself what you do regularly that is difficult or challenges you.

We may not all be runners or desire to live like David Goggins, but that doesn't mean we shouldn’t try to become a little bit tougher each day.

As the Buddha proclaimed, “Life is Suffering”.

The question remains, if we choose to embrace the suck, is it possible that we may just be able to overcome it?

-John Henry

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