Dear Atmos Family,
Happy New Year! The Mission of Atmos is to create an experience where members can enjoy life through drinks, entertainment, and community. But our Vision bigger. It is to help our members live life to its fullest potential. Enjoyment of life is at the center of our Mission and Vision. Therefore, Atmos is “taking the plunge” into habits that will sustain overall health and happiness. We invite you to join us and make 2025 your best year yet!
We have all heard, “No Pain, No Gain.” But all suffering is not equal. Getting the blood pumping at the gym is painful…but not the same kind of pain caused by obesity and cardiovascular disease. The former is pain with benefits (“redemptive” suffering), whereas the latter is just pain. Engaging in redemptive suffering creates ecosystems of life that produce greater degrees of overall health, happiness and prosperity.
Life is hard. We are all tempted to cope with difficulties with unhealthy life practices…including doing nothing at all. It helps to be in a community that encourages healthy living through redemptive suffering. At Atmos, our community has been engaging in the following disciplines. We invite you to join us and make 2025 your best year yet!
“The blessing in life is when you find the torture you are comfortable with. That’s marriage, it’s kids, it’s work, it’s exercise. Find the torture you’re comfortable with and you’ll do well. You’ve mastered that, you’ve mastered life.”
– Jerry Seinfeld
Freeze
Cold Water Immersion (Cold Baths)
“You are crazy!” “Why would you do that to yourself?!” We have heard it all. Nevertheless, we have had a blast swapping stories of our 3-5 minute, daily ice (32-45 degree) baths. Some choose cold showers, others hunker down in tiny $100 Amazon plunge pools, and still others cut holes in the ice at the vacation lake house! Some keep their pool open year-round as their instrument of torture…and even plan “plunge parties” with their Winter house guests. Everyone has different thresholds, but the general goal is about 11 minutes per week cumulatively.
Our journey began in 2022 with research to help call our brain’s bluff that we would die of cold (or stupidity!). We then started with 30-second plunges. We have now acclimated to daily 3-5 minute baths. There are lots of benefits from ice bathing, but we particularly love the euphoric feeling afterwards and the laser-focus concentration at work for about 4 hours following (think Bradley Cooper after popping the pill in the movie, “Limitless”). We also get deeper sleep, energetically tackle difficult issues with newfound grit, and have developed a “can-do” attitude towards seemingly impossible tasks. We get all of this at the cost of 3 minutes of our day!
Fit
Exercise
Many of us began our personal training regimens as teenagers. Since then, we have exercised daily. Our focus is to build muscle mass to help with bone health, posture, etc… and also endurance train at a “Zone 2” (115-140 BPM) heart rate for 3-4 hours/week and 8-12 minutes at Zone 5 (175+ BPM)/week. Our community prioritizes training including carving out time for a Lifetime Fitness visit when traveling.
One idea is to train (or ice bathe) in the morning or when you hit the end of your brain cycle late afternoon. Your mental and emotional battery recharges after each training session. Your brain cycle also resets afterwards, giving you another 3-4 hours of deep concentration. You will also be more energetic, social, happy and intelligent person after training/ice bathing. We used to think we would not have enough time to train. Now, we don’t think we could survive at this level without training!
Fast
Fasting
Some of us began water fasting journey a long time ago. Over the decades, we have periodically abstained from everything but water, using mealtimes to pray. Fasting helps us manage stress, enhance prayer life, gain clarity on a difficult issue, appreciate food and other blessings that we take for granted and silence our stomach’s incessant demands. We feel refreshed and focused for weeks after a fast.
There are also many medical benefits to a water fast. We invite you to start your year by engaging in water fast with Atmos. A group of us just completed our 3-5 day water fast. Fast for as long or short as you desire and let us know how it goes!
Happy New Year from your Atmos Family – Here’s to living life to the fullest and flourishing in 2025!