I posted this in a kayak paddlers' forum and am still alive. So thought I'd post it here. Please move to Camping Hammocks if a better fit there (but it's not about a camping hammock per say):
I'm posting this because I hear about people being cold. I hope something I say below will "click" with some people and maybe make a "cold night" a little more tolerable.
Along ago, before there was the term "homeless", I spent a winter living in the back of my station wagon. I didn't consider myself "homeless", I just didn't have enough money for rent at the time. I parked near the community swimming pool and for a $1.00 I could get a shower, use the sink to shave, look presentable, and help a community college XC Ski instructor teach her daily class. At night I'd crawl into my sleeping bag in the back of the car. I noticed two things. 1) I was a premie baby, spent my first days in an incubator. So as I lay there, looking up at the glass and metal, it was like returning to "Mom". 2) I noticed that the sleeping bag wasn't giving me warmth, I had to generate that myself. I also thought it was amusing that while others were scraping their windows from the outside, I was cleaning off frost from the inside.
So I started thinking about "heat" and how it can be generated from the inside (inside of me). Nothing especially esoteric, just noting things like if you are waiting for a job interview, or "in the principal's office", nervous about a date, etc., there's a "heat" that is not dependent on the sun. So it wasn't so much a technique of making heat as it was an acknowledgement that it can be done. Each night I got some practice in telling my body, "Time to make some heat."
Have you noticed how people like to say, "It's cold." Well, it is not "cold" - it's, say, 40 degrees. You are cold, someone else might not be. If, instead of saying, "It's cold.", you say, "I'm cold." then you take responsibility for your condition and you can do something about it - like put on more insulation. I know it sounds like just playing with words but I've found that by embracing the idea that I'm cold, it moves me to an active roll in getting warm (generating heat) while "It's cold" puts me in a more passive place.
Story time: Once upon a time, a friend and I were on a river bank and I threw a rock across the river. My friend, a girl, and six inches taller, could barely throw it half way across. She wanted to span that river so first we worked on her form - getting the stance, throwing with the whole arm, then putting more of the body into it. With each "correction" the rock was going further and further across the river - but still falling short.
So I had her make a Grrrrrrr sound; but it wasn't good enough. So while she was Grrrrr-ing I pushed up the corner of her lip, making a snarl. I had her throw with a Grrrr and a snarl and the rock almost made it across.
I told her she had to find her "animal"; there was still too much politeness in her throw. So I had an idea. I told her she had to trust me and had her stand facing me. Then I abruptly pushed her with a hand on each shoulder. Her head snapped back and I could see the "look" in her eye. "That!" I said, "That's the animal; embrace it." Keeping the momentum, I told her to take that rock, grrrrr with a snarl, find the animal, and span that river - And she did!
She was so excited she did it again, and again. At this point I wondered if I had created a monster as the rocks on our side of the river bank were now quickly taking up residence on the other side.
I told her that the animal is always there, but needs to be "trained" a bit so it can be summoned when necessary.
It's upping the level of engagement. And, frankly, I've found it easier for guys to do than women. But it's there; you just have to find it, make friends with it. Use it to do good. And keep warm.
Again, I'm not saying you don't need "warm clothes". I'm saying that all the warm clothes in the world won't help if you don't make the heat yourself. Sometimes just keeping aware of - "I'm cold"; not "It's cold" - helps.
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Originally Posted by IRONFISH45
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