I don’t know myself anymore, which is more challenging for me: the cold or the weight.
I’ve been taking cold showers since April 2021. Moreover, I’ve been walking in frigid temperatures since Fall/Winter 2021/2022. Speaking shortly, 2021 was a year when I started consciously exposing my body to cold. Undoubtedly, cold hurts. Giving up to coldness has been challenging for me up till today (I wrote the “Cold or the weight?” text on the 5th of November, 2024). Still, since I started doing rucking in August 2024, I do not know what’s more challenging: feeling coldness in my body or feeling the tremendous weight on my back and shoulders (rucking is walking with an additional weight; for today, I usually walk with the total weight of my rucksack of 15 kg [33 lbs]). Previously, I thought that I walked with only 12 kg.
Still, since I weighed my backpack, it appeared that it weighed 3 kg itself.
Thus, I had to add an additional 3 kg to my calculations. 15 kg on my back and shoulders does not sound horrible. On the contrary, it seems it is not as heavy as I think. Still, I must assure you, my Dear Friend, that feeling this burden after two hours of marching is probably as challenging as walking for two hours wearing summer clothes (with a winter cap and gloves) in freezing temperatures (after this walking, sometimes I literally do not feel my fingertips). I probably won’t write today (never?) about whether challenging cold temperatures are more challenging than walking for two hours with a heavy burden on the shoulders. Undoubtedly, all these activities strengthen not only my muscles and body but also my mind and soul. Without such challenges, there is no broadly defined progress in one’s life. After such hard walking, I feel alive.
