A YOGI CHA BLOG
Let’s be cold and hungry more often

Im a huge fan of neuroscience and listening to experts in this field of biology and psychology.
It is fascinating to hear them explain our functioning from the perspective of chemicals and hormones in the brain and the rest of the the body.
However, it’s not necessarily why I am such a fan because what they are saying is not news to me.
What I find most interesting with these new researches and experiments is that they are simply catching up with what the old ways have always promoted.
And why not? We live in a perception that everything has to be “scientifically proved” for us to believe it.
As long as you can trust what we are suggesting and are ready to do it, that is the main goal for me.
A professor at Harvard recently spoke in his podcast about the “metabolic winter hypothesis”.
Basically he said that our modern life has created lazy organisms because we are overly stimulated with anything that could seem like a “lack”.
We are so afraid of lacking anything which in itself is rather ironic since we also live in constant scarcity. Well maybe it’s not so ironic as it is a logical development of that scarcity.
Actually, in order for our organisms to bloom into their full potential, we kind of need to feel cold and be hungry a little more often. Our bodies were made for a lifestyle where we would need to conquer these two things on a daily basis.
This is of course why we feel more alerte after a cold shower and more focused when we are just a little hungry. It’s of course also why the latest trends of “bio hacking” oneself includes things like ice baths and intermittent fasting.
But I won’t even go there today, it will be the topic of another article.
However, our fear of discomfort is clearly what drives us in many actions and also what actually makes our bodies less efficient. It has come so far that we take it for granted, that it’s dangerous to be in discomfort, to be hungry or cold.
It’s gone so far that we don’t even know that we can take it : we are in complete DISTRUST of our organism’s own capacities.
Just this morning I noticed my own distrust when I decided to practice my Mysore without having caffeine before. And in the end, it went really well of course. I would even say that without the over heating and dehydration that coffee does, my body was less in a state of stress so that my muscles could engage the way they know how to.
Another typical example is when we are sick. A couple of weeks ago I had a fever for several days and while the body is fighting the intruder it actually is recommended by Ayurveda to let the digestive system rest. Simply hydrate and rest. Which is what I did but my dear mother was so worried because I wasn’t eating solid food for two days. I still had water and broth which really was all I needed since I literally didn’t move from my bed for several days.
Basically, to boil it down to the essential: modern science shows us that what the Ayurvedic doctor’s and the yogis have told us for the past 5000 years or more, is very true. But anyone a little interested in these things knows this by now because it has become rather common knowledge. However, what we don’t seem to discuss so much is what brought us to this point of disconnection to an original way of living and what the repercussions are. Because for me it all points to this incapacity to simply trust that our bodies will manage anything we encounter.
When we don’t trust that, we don’t trust the signals either. More so, we don’t know that the signals are just that, signals. This is of course the reason we take pills, have coffee, alcohol and whatever else you can think of that alters your consciousness. Imagine a person from the hunter-gatherer time, coming in today and seeing how we live. We probably would seem like a whole different species to them.
We needn’t be so concerned with discomfort from external conditions because our body knows how to adapt to them. All the modern diseases really come from the disconnection to our natural habitat and lifestyle. To be active when the sun is up, to rest when it’s down. To start the day with eliminating the toxins our body accumulated during the night in its own and natural detoxification process. To have our main meal when the internal fire is at its best, when the sun is high and the temperature makes our bodies warm from the outside too. To eat what naturally is available to us according to location and season and to not eat when we are not active.
Very simple things that we need to learn again.
Come back to accepting the cold and hunger as something we can manage.
Hi, I’m Charlotte (Yogi Cha). I’m a yoga teacher with a degree in clinical psychology. I’ve always had a deep curiosity toward eastern and western approaches to understanding the mind, and the ming/body union. You’ll find me in the lovely Canggu Bali, nestled amongst coconuts, palm trees and sunshine 🥥🌴🌞