Henry David Thoreau Quote on Keeping Your Spirit Up By Dealing With Brute Nature

“Take long walks in stormy weather or through deep snow in the fields and woods, if you would keep your spirits up. Deal with brute nature. Be cold and hungry and weary.”

Henry David Thoreau, Sunbeams (Page 8)

Beyond the Quote (Day 377)

For when you are warm, satiated, and fresh again—you can truly be thankful. Hard to be truly thankful for warmth until you’ve felt cold. Hard to appreciate the satisfaction of a full stomach if your stomach never empties. Hard to understand the blessing of feeling fresh when sleeping in and lack of responsibility are your everyday norms. If you would like to keep your spirits up, it helps to remind your spirit of what’s below.

When comfortable, luxurious living becomes so commonplace that it is the daily expectation—the miracles of luxurious, or even just comfortable living become overlooked and taken for granted. And that which we take for granted, by definition, we don’t express gratitude for. If we expect our house to be warm, then it’s not gratitude that we feel when we wake up and feel warmth, it’s more of a lack of any feeling at all.

We’re merely, unaffected—indifferent. And so we carry on thinking about whatever else it is that we think about. And while it’s certainly worth recognizing the significance in that statement—that we’ve come so far in modern living that we can take everyday comfort for granted—it’s also worth remembering that taking things for granted has essentially the opposite effect of gratitude.

If an attitude-of-gratitude promotes a feeling of contentedness and appreciation, a for-granted attitude promotes a feeling of discontentedness and entitlement. If an attitude-of-gratitude brings present-mindedness, a for-granted attitude encourages past and future mindedness. If an attitude-of-gratitude brings a sense of calm and ease, a for-granted attitude brings a sense of angst and unease.

How then to best maintain an attitude-of-gratitude? Well, put simply, by not taking things for granted! By showing appreciation for the comforts of modern living, which, might best be done by remembering the discomforts that our comforts shield us from. Deal with brute nature. Take long walks in stormy weather and trudge through the freezing snow. Remind yourself what it’s like to be cold and hungry and weary. And then reenter your modern way of living with warm, full, and fresh eyes.

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Read Next: C. S. Lewis Quote on How You Are Never Too Old To Give Direction To Your Life (Day 376)

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