Two Tools for Becoming Anti-Fragile
Presented here are two tools that can be intentionally used to experience Post-Traumatic Growth and, as a result, work towards becoming Anti-Fragile.
I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.
— Confucius
Anti-fragility
Anti-fragility is a term coined by Nassim Taleb in his book of the same title. It explains the process of experiencing stress then, rather than remaining neutral or worsening, growing as a result of it. As stated in the video above, we experience Anti-fragility in our daily lives in activities such as exercising. During this, we break down our muscles doing exercises just so they can grow back more resilient than before (also considered Post-Traumatic Growth).
However, this isn’t limited to our bodies. We can also use this idea to shape our minds. As I discussed in my previous article about training for stress, habituation to stress plays an important role in overcoming fear and anxiety; helping us to become more Anti-Fragile.
These tools are only a couple of the innumerable strategies that can be used to better understand and control ourselves. Tools are important aspects of our growth because they allow us to work in an environment that is both non-judgmental and has no repercussions for our failures. These will give us the skills we can use in every other aspect of our life where the stakes are much higher. By becoming familiar with stress and understanding our response to it, we can begin to control it. We can then take this control to other situations where our newfound skills can elevate our performance.
We become what we behold. We shape our tools, and thereafter our tools shape us.― Marshall McLuhan.
Tools: Rock Climbing
I have constantly sought out tools that help me grow into a more self-aware and capable individual to help me consistently perform at the highest level. Mindfulness was the pivotal first step I took years ago. Then, through my job, I was introduced to the combination of brain training and exercising. In my personal life, I have found the tools of rock climbing and the cold plunge to give me similar benefits that are both more accessible and oftentimes more fun.
I started rock climbing in a gym in college after being introduced to it by a friend. Initially thinking that rock climbing was reserved for yogis and hippies, I was skeptical, however it didn’t take long for me to fall in love.
Finding a climbing gym has become more and more easy over the years as the sport has grown in popularity. There are a couple of types of climbing that are easily accessible for a beginner to try out. One is bouldering and the other is top-rope.
Bouldering is the act of climbing up to 20 feet on a wall with only pads below you to soften your fall. Although it presents no significant risk, I still feel my heart rate begin to rise as I climb higher and higher. Top-rope utilizes a higher wall, up to 60 feet in some gyms, and requires the climber to use a rope and harness for safety. Top-rope presents even fewer risks than bouldering because a fall from any height is protected by the rope, but the mental stimulation is nevertheless very real. I have many times felt significant fear, requiring the use of breathing techniques to calm me down, during simple climbs.
Rock climbing is a sport that can be done inside or outside in nature, where you work to climb up a wall using only your body. It has grown in recent years with the help of Alex Honnold and his massive feat of climbing the 3,000ft El Capitan wall in Yosemite National Park without a rope or any other safety gear. This climb was documented in the excellent film Free Solo where they followed him through the process of preparing for this climb — A process that included both the physical but more-so the mental preparation required for this massive undertaking.
Because of Alex and many other climbers creating and disseminating content, the mental aspect of rock climbing has been documented more and more. In this discussion between climber, Alex Honnold, and psychology researcher, Armita Golkar, they talk about just that. He does an excellent job relating the extremes of free-soloing a mountain to the risks we experience on a daily basis and how he views activities in terms of the level of consequences rather than ambiguously as “dangerous”.
This is incredible because it proves through activities such as rock climbing we can grow individually as a result of the challenge and take that growth with us to seemingly disconnected parts of our lives. However, the more research that’s done in this area, the more it becomes clear that we don’t grow simply from a singular focus in one area. We also improve from what we do in the other areas of our lives. By challenging ourselves in a multitude of different ways and gaining exposure in many different environments, we can actually show up in our area of specialty with more confidence in our ability to perform even when the outcome remains uncertain.
Tools: The Cold Plunge
The other tool I highly recommend based on a massive amount of research and personal experience is cold exposure, and more specifically here: the cold plunge. I was first introduced to cold exposure when I read the book What Doesn’t Kill Us By Scott Carney. In this book, the author outlines his experience trying and documenting the life and methods of Wim Hof (see below). Since my initial introduction to this method, I have gained a great appreciation for the cold and the mental and physical growth that can come along with it.
The magic of cold plunges is the acuteness of the experience. From the moment you set foot in a bath, you are on high alert. The cold provides an immediate shock to the system that requires mental skills to remain calm, control your breathing, and stay focused throughout the entire experience. Even though most exposures last only a couple minutes, without the proper tools it can feel like an eternity.
What I have learned from this experience is that no matter how many times I have accomplished a cold plunge, I never know exactly how my body will react when I return once again for another. I have found that learning to control this shock helps me not only in cold exposure, but in any situation that takes me by surprise in my life. When I experience a moment that takes my breath away, scares me, or puts me in a situation I am completely unprepared for, I lean on the experience I gain from cold plunges. I start by controlling my breathing, bring my thoughts to the present moment, and work on focusing what I can control before moving forward.
By using cold plunges, you can gain the power to overcome the anticipation of pain, shock to your system, then utilize mindfulness to regain control of the situation.
Andrew Huberman, Ph.D., a neuroscientist in the Department of Neurobiology at the Stanford University School of Medicine, wrote an excellent article on the innumerable health benefits of cold exposure and the many ways you can experience it. Here is an excerpt from his article applicable to this discussion.
By forcing yourself to embrace the stress of cold exposure as a meaningful self-directed challenge (i.e., stressor), you exert what is called ‘top-down control’ over deeper brain centers that regulate reflexive states. This top-down control process involves your prefrontal cortex — an area of your brain involved in planning and suppressing impulsivity. That ‘top-down’ control is the basis of what people refer to when they talk about “resilience and grit.” Importantly, it is a skill that carries over to situations outside of the deliberate cold environment, allowing you to cope better and maintain a calm, clear mind when confronted with real-world stressors. In other words, deliberate cold exposure is great training for the mind.
This is a training similar to meditation that anyone can do with simply the tools they have in their home (cold shower, or cold plunge created by filling a bath with water and ice). One of the reasons cold exposure works is because it quickly forces you to learn how to control your breath and deal with an intense feeling of stress in the moment. The stress caused by the cold results in adrenaline pulses in the brain. This is the discomfort that makes us want to quickly exit the water, however this is also the exact response we want to learn how to control.
To experience optimal cold exposure, Dr. Huberman says, “consider doing deliberate cold exposure for 11 minutes per week TOTAL. NOT per session, but rather, 2–4 sessions lasting 1–5 mins each distributed across the week. Again, the water temperature should be uncomfortably cold yet safe to stay in for a few minutes.”
My preferred method of cold exposure is one long session (3–5min) on the weekends where I fill my bath with water and 50lbs of ice and 1 minute of cold water at the end of my showers each morning.
Fear does not go away by itself. You have to confront your fear, mold it, then learn to control it in it’s own irrational reality. Every human being has the power to do just that. To go deep within and confront your inner being is a powerful act. ― Wim Hof, Becoming the Iceman
The Iceman Example
Wim Hof is the perfect success story. He holds over 20 world records including climbing past the death zone on Mount Everest (7,500m) wearing only shorts (no supplemental oxygen) and remaining submerged neck-deep in an ice bath for 1 hour and 53 minutes. Additionally, in 2014, he proved to scientists he can effectively control his sympathetic nervous system and immune response after physicians injected him with an endotoxin.
Wim Hof has gained this skill through his breathing and cold therapy techniques. He specifically looks at how breath and the resulting oxygen content in our body can play a role in regulating our core body temperature and engaging our immune response.
Meditation acts as the bridge over and through the pain to slowly shift our mental state from fear and anxiety to control. It allows you to continue working not in spite of pain but because of it. According to Naval Ravikant, “Your breath is one of the few places where your autonomic nervous system meets your voluntary nervous system. It’s involuntary, but you can also control it.”
Wim Hof is another extreme example of the control we can attain over our body. When we experience stress in our jobs or at home, we aren’t beholden to them because they are “natural”. After his wife passed away, Wim found purpose in dedicating his life to connecting the skills he’s gained through training to science. He has proven that what he has accomplished is replicable to people like you and me.
Within you, there is a stillness and a sanctuary to which you can retreat at anytime and be yourself. — Hermann Hesse
Conclusion
These tools can have some amazing effects, but they don’t fix everything. Research by Alicia Salvador published in Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews shows, for most people, strictly exposing yourself to more psychological stress decreases your stress response, but for others, it has even been shown to remain unchanged or even increase. This was found to be a result of each persons subjective evaluation of the situation. In other words, whether they viewed the stress in a way that was insurmountable or as a challenge they could overcome.
The latest studies indicate that the neuroendocrine response to competition depends more on subjective factors related to the cognitive evaluation of the situation. — Neuroscience and Biobehavioural Reviews (2005)
Mindfulness is the tool that bridges this gap. By being aware of the present moment, we have the ability to choose the perspective needed to overcome any challenge. When we remain present, we don’t become overwhelmed by what could happen. Rather, we are responding to what is happening. With this, we are sure to be benefitting from these tools rather than leaving it up to chance.
With the proper self-awareness, we can be sure we will gain the improved resilience we are seeking in our pursuit of anti-fragility.
