How to Embrace the Heat
/
Photo by Ketut Subiyanto from Pexels
By: Mark Sisson
Wake up early.
Get up early, earlier than usual go outside, and get as much intellectual work done as you can before the heat ramps up.
Lee Kuan Yew, the founder of Singapore, often said that air conditioning was the single biggest factor in his country’s rise to prominence. Once AC was installed in the cities, his people finally had relief from the oppressive tropical heat and could do real intellectual work. The same is true for the individual. Heat makes thinking, writing, and creating harder. Early morning before the sun starts hitting hard is the best time to get creative, intellectual work done. Or any work, really—yard work, labor, etc.
Get up before the sun starts asserting itself. Another advantage of doing this is that the early morning natural light will entrain your circadian rhythm so you can get to bed earlier and fall asleep faster and sleep more deeply.
Sit with the heat.
Don’t reach for the AC right away. Take some clothes off and just sit with the heat and the sweat and the misery. Let it envelop you and know that you will be fine. You’re going to survive, it’s not that bad, you’re simply going to be uncomfortable. Accept the fact that you’re going to feel the heat and know that you, as a human, have a long history of handling extreme temperatures—both cold and hot. It’s what you’re built to do. You got this.
You must accept the heat. You can’t change it. It’s here, you’re in it, and you are going to deal with it.
Consume electrolytes.
It’s not enough to simply drink water in hot weather. Drink water, of course, but doing that without heeding the importance of electrolytes—sodium, magnesium, potassium, and calcium being the foremost ones to worry about—will have you urinating out most of the water you consume without actually absorbing much of it. So what does this mean?
For most people in most situations, sprinkling salt in all your water is adequate. (A squirt of lemon will make it more palatable.) Getting enough sodium will help you retain the other electrolytes. If you’re really going to be exerting yourself in the heat, then go with a legitimate electrolyte supplement like LMNT or my tried and true homemade electrolyte drink: coconut water, salt, blackstrap molasses, and lemon or lime juice.
Read my previous posts on electrolytes—what they are and how to get them—for more information and more ideas on electrolyte repletion.
Wear linen.
I wear lots of linen lately, ever since moving to Miami. Linen is a legitimate performance material that doesn’t get enough respect. It’s not just lounge material. It breathes, it looks good, it feels great, and there’s something special about wearing “natural” fibers that words or science can’t quite capture. Plus, there are no plastic synthetic fibers in linen, so when you wash it you aren’t adding to the microplastic load on Earth and its ground water.
Little known fact that may or may not be totally accurate: linen is made from flax, so in a pinch you can chew on your linen shirt to extract enough omega-3s to satisfy your daily requirements.
Read the rest of the article here:
