Crossing the border

After a short hiatus Stoic Sundays is back! This week I challenged myself to a feat of national proportions – applying for a work visa at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport. I’ve alluded to traffic as being a great place to practice Stoic reflection, and crossing the border struck me as another excellent venue to practice … Continue reading Crossing the border

Internet Detox

Humans struggle with a phenomenon known as hedonic adaptation – we get used to what we have and want more (aside: this is one of several interesting behaviours that fall under the realm of Behavioural Science – check out Min’s BehavLab blog on that here!).  Stoicism attempts to counter this problem by resetting our expectations through … Continue reading Internet Detox

Taking a stand

We’ve got aching feet as we write this week’s post. For our challenge today we decided to go a day without sitting. We take for granted the amount of sitting we typically do in a day – in some ways it’s been refreshing to have a day long stretch. In fact, many health studies have … Continue reading Taking a stand

Barefooting it

Brought to you in the glory of HD video – today’s Stoic challenge was one of Seneca’s favourites and a classic in voluntary discomfort. We went for a barefoot walk. This challenge offers discomfort for the sake of being better able to endure discomfort. We brought along a split view camera to provide commentary throughout. … Continue reading Barefooting it

Sick day

Our Stoic challenge this week is… having the flu!  Both Greg and I are under the weather today, so we haven’t had to come up with a particularly creative voluntary discomfort as nature has handed us this one on a platter. Nonetheless, being sick certainly makes you appreciate being healthy. We don’t recommend trying this … Continue reading Sick day

Hanger Management

Today we’re having a hazy, hangry Sunday, as we’ve embarked upon a 24 hour fast. That means we started fasting after dinner last night, and are restricting ourselves to only drinking water until we cross the 24 hour mark this evening. 8:00 AM – This is going to be fun! 11:00 AM – Atypical bickering begins … Continue reading Hanger Management