A Mindful Week 41: The "Some Like it Hot" Issue
A dive into the surprising virtue of hot baths, a Zen monk's reframing of cleaning, FKA twigs performance that keeps you spellbound, and the tale of a woman that spent 500 days in a cave.
Hello Makers,
All the cool kids boast about cold baths.
And yes, I believe you, bro: facing the cold is
improving your immune system
developing your mental strength
making you look cool on Tinder
And, yet.
I don’t know how many people know that the opposite is also true:
Hot baths are a fast track to meditative states.
They
help you regulate your nervous system
sweat out toxins
enter a meditative state (fast)
This is all fancy speech for:
Nothing relaxes you as a super hot bath.
Hot baths have been around forever. In Japan, they are seen as spiritually cleansing. Many places built houses around hot springs to be able to take a natural hot bath each day.
A Japanese hot bath is not what you think it is.
A Japanese hot bath is not your everyday Hello Kitty feel-good jam.
It is so hot that your whole system goes into shutdown.
Try it at home:
1.) Find a bathtub.
2) Crank it up: Go 45 C+.
3) Stay for 15 min.
I wish you a week of heat and relaxation,
ニコラス (Nikurasu)
A Monk’s Guide to A Clean House & Mind
I sat down with Zen Monk Shoukei Matsumoto last week at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Shoukei is a master in distilling the essence of Buddhism into simple principles that will make life more fulfilling. I highly recommend his book.
FKA TWIGS performance left me spellbound
FKA twigs can do everything: her voice moves in heights others would get vertigo; her dancing is as technical as it is daring. Her creativity seems to have no ends.
If someone is that gifted, the only thing that matters is “how do you put your talents to use”?
If you are talented the most important lever becomes TASTE. What choices will you make now that the world is open to you?
FKA twigs latest moves are a joy to witness. Her everymove is playful. She recorded an album that is just fun and play. And now she tops it all with a dance performancence that celebrates earth, grounding and falling.
The woman who spent 500 days in a cave
This woman spent 500 days in a cave. Not a smart idea, if you ask me.
I have spent time in long-form silent retreats (up to one month) and also given dark-room retreats a try.
I have seen the benefits to intensive mental training. But equally I have seen myself fall into a capitalist “harder, faster, stronger” urge.
My homie Montaigne said:
“If you do not know how to govern yourself, it would be madness to entrust yourself to yourself. There are ways of failing in solitude as in society.”
If someone ask me these days how to “silent retreat” here is my top 3:
Go gentle & be nice to yourself
Seek support from a teacher that teaches “being kind to yourself”
Start with 3 guided days
All I am saying is. Go gentle. Don’t start with a marathon.
Some of my favorite passages in this great essay:
“You know you’re going to die—today, tomorrow, within fifty years,” Flamini told herself. “What is it that you want to do with your life before that happens?” The immediate answer, she remembers, was to “grab my knapsack and go and live in the mountains.”
The cave experience was not something that she “would recommend to anyone,” she said, adding, “I didn’t exactly lose consciousness, but the darkness saps you of life.” She went on, “The solitude, the social uprooting, it consumes you. Or, to put it a better way, you eat—you down nutrients—but you consume yourself.”
Playlist: Soul Hip Hop
I added 30 tracks to my soul hip hop playlist. I am in search of spiritual voices that make your head nod gently and your heart warm. This is what i found so far.
一 Mind Travel I:
Application for next year’s meditation retreat is open. As usual, it will be an intimate group of fewer than 12 participants, which is unusual and rare in meditation retreats.
I will host a silent meditation retreat for leaders from 28.05. - 02.06.2024 (near Berlin). The theme this year will be “wise, compassionate leadership.” The retreat will start with a full day of leadership workshops and then enter a 3-day silent meditation retreat experience.
I wish to create a space of care, nature, food, science, and deep training. If you want to join, write me a message about why you should be the one joining.
に Timetravel:
If you are the nostalgic type, or if you are new - here you find the last „Mindful Week“ inspiration letters. Let me know what you want to read next.
Quote, I’m reflecting on:
"But when a man's existential satisfaction depends on not knowing something he very much will find a way to not know it."
Teju Cole
Want more…
Here are some portals into the Nikolas Konstantin Multiverse:
Training the Theory and Art of Meditation: A Beautiful Mind Course
You asked me if I could pack the meditations and lessons of my workshop into a portable format.
Here is my clumsy attempt at distilling the feeling, models, and mental training into something that could work for the online world.
If you want to train your mind but also want to understand the theory from science and meditation traditions, this one is for you: So far, I have included The Guide to the 3 Styles of Meditation E-Book, 4 hours of theory, 10 + Meditations & Retreat Mode (create your own silent retreat with my retreat recordings). Join and let me know what to record next.
The Best of Management and Leadership: Founder Playbooks
As a founder coach, I scan the best of leadership literature, Harvard Business Review, and mindfulness so you can focus on what matters most—building a thriving organization.
Some of that theory makes it into my library, featuring the best management and leadership theory. So far, I have made those "Founder Playbooks" only accessible to my coachees. But I decided to open it for you. Join the club and tell me what I should write about next.
About
A Mindful Week is an almost punctual newsletter about living a reflected life curated by executive coach & meditation teacher Nikolas. If you like what you read, share it with a friend.
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