Happy Monday, Noosers! Big week here in our houses with Christmas knocking on the door. We hope you had a great weekend, welcoming in winter with the solstice, and looking forward to longer days ahead! We thought we would bring back our video Noosletter this week, to invite you into the conversations we have been having lately about our annual misogi. What’s a misogi, you ask? Listen, watch or read the summary below to learn all about it — we hope it will give you something to think about for 2025!
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What’s a Misogi?
In the ancient Shinto faith (largest religion in Japan, which focuses on living in harmony with nature), ‘misogi’ meant ‘water cleansing.’ It required standing under an icy waterfall to purify the soul and prepare one for the next 364 days of the year. Brrr!!
Our version of misogi is a bit more modern. It takes the idea of the ancient misogi — a “cleansing” ritual that sets the standard for the rest of the year — and instead of requiring an icy waterfall, it can be anything you dream up that pushes the edges of your potential. We discovered the modern misogi while reading Comfort Crisis by Michael Easter last fall. The appeal of a misogi is that it’s a physical adventure out in nature that pushes the edges of your physical and mental boundaries, and really shows you what you’re made of! The upside is that even if you fail and don’t complete your misogi, you will still likely surprise yourself with your own mental and physical toughness.
According to Michael Easter, there are two rules you must follow during your misogi.
the misogi must be so difficult that you only have a 50/50 chance of completing.
don’t die.
Obviously, when planning your misogi you need to be sure it’s safe. For instance, if you can’t swim, don’t base your misogi around swimming. Training and preparation are also key. Other things to keep in mind when planning — a misogi should take place out in nature and, just like fight club, you don’t talk about your misogi, aka you don’t post on instagram about it. This should be a challenge for you and only you (or you and a friend!)
We live in the best time to be alive — we have modern comforts that make life so easy on a daily basis. However, with so many conveniences, it’s easy to lose track of things that are actually hard. When we aren’t challenged with hard things, the easy things can become overwhelming. A misogi is an opportunity to recalibrate. You may be leaving potential on the table without even knowing it. Watch the video to hear more about our misogi last year (it was awesome!) and what we are thinking about doing this year.
The end of a year brings thoughts on resolutions and new beginnings. We invite you to try something new (and different 🤣) and outside your comfort zone this year—plan a misogi for 2025! Even though it’s against the rules to post about it, we hope you let us know how it goes and how it shapes 2025 for you!
Until next time….
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