On June 1, 1970, two Soviet cosmonauts Andriyan Nikolayev and Vitaly Sevastyanov launched Soyuz 9, spending the next 18 days in space.
This broke the previous human spaceflight record by 14 days (the American Gemini 7 in 1965).
Soyuz 9 remains the longest crewed mission ever flown by a standalone spacecraft.
But when they landed in Kazakhstan on June 19th, the ground crews were shocked to find the two in terrible condition.
They showed severe muscle weakness and could hardly stand or walk, their heart and lungs were badly deconditioned, and they had very high pulse rates and suffered from dizziness. Recovery took several weeks.
This mission was pivotal in understanding the effects of zero-gravity living.
They discovered that hip, leg, back, and core muscles stop resisting gravity so the body “downsizes” them in response. Muscle tone drops dramatically when not standing. The heart weakens because it is not pumping against gravity. And balance systems are thrown off by not standing on the earth, resulting in inner ear confusion. Quads, calves, glutes, and spine are hit especially hard.
This happens surprisingly quickly without countermeasures.
In response to this problem, the Soviet space program created the iconic Pingvin (Penguin) suit which became standard issue for future space missions in 1975.
The suit had built in tension and elastic bands that created a continuous compression force of about 30-40kg for movement. The suits were notoriously brutal to wear, reportedly hot and exhausting. But combined with other physical therapies, they helped to counter the harmful effects of zero-gravity existence and became much more important for longer missions.
I don’t know about you, but most of the time I long for zero-gravity living. Often, my planning involves trying to avoid or remove obstacles and increase the level of comfort in my life.
But this type of planning and living often leaves us with a less than helpful mindset or response to the inevitable gravity of life. And it can “decondition” our mental strength and resilience.
For example, we commonly hear that running is bad for your knees so it should be avoided.
But recent meta-analyses indicate that moderate running is associated with lower rates of knee osteoarthritis since it may encourage the body to maintain healthier bone, muscle, cartilage, and tendons (Alentorn-Geli et al 2017, The Association of Recreational and Competitive Running With Hip and Knee Osteoarthritis: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis). They did emphasize that an observational study does not prove cause and effect.
Increasing comfort and removing obstacles is such a part of the fabric of our culture that we may not even stop to consider whether removing obstacles or infinitely increasing comfort—is always beneficial.
But we don’t just do this physically. We tend to apply this same mindset to our mental, emotional, or spiritual lives.
Just as moderate loading helps the tissue in our bodies adapt, we need some stress to strengthen capacities we would not otherwise develop.
When a relationship gets tough, we might assume there is something “wrong” and it should be ended. When feelings of sadness or grief arise, we might try to numb or escape them. When something takes longer than we feel it should, we might mistakenly assume that is a sign that “it wasn’t meant to be.”
This kind of thinking can quietly undermine resilience and may cause us to avoid the very thing that we need to heal or grow.
I’ve shared this study before but it’s worth repeating. A 2013 study by Stanford psychologist Alia Crum and colleagues of 388 participants showed that people who watched a “stress can be enhancing” video for a week were more likely to view stress as positive and consequently have improved mental and physical responses to stress. She does not say that all stress or chronic stress is good, but concludes that our view of life challenges can strongly influence how we feel and respond to these events.
We recently had a guest pastor who summed this up well: “The absence of discomfort or resistance in your life is not necessarily a sign that things are going in the right direction for you.” I left that day really challenged with how this might apply in my own life.
In fact, the message from most great spiritual texts, is that life is expected to have consistent trials, suffering, and obstacles. And that these things in and of themselves are also not proof that something is wrong or that you have done anything wrong. Additionally, most spiritual traditions argue that these trials are perhaps the only thing that would stimulate growth.
With Amazon one-click, unfriending people on social media, and a medication for nearly everything, it has never been easier to remove points of friction from our lives. But without emotional, psychological, and spiritual friction—growth cannot be stimulated.
The Russian Space program quickly realized that the answer wasn’t making space more comfortable. The answer was adding tension and resistance back into the daily lives of the astronauts.
When you catch yourself trying to remove discomfort from your life this week, consider whether it might be the gravity you actually need to maintain your physical, emotional, or spiritual conditioning.
Take action now
None of this means we should deliberately seek out suffering. But when it inevitably arrives, we can expand how we interpret and respond to it.
This weekend, write down a few challenges you have in your life right now and conduct a “benefit-finding exercise” for one of them.
- What strengths have I discovered in myself that I might now have without this experience?
- Has this experience changed how I value or appreciate my life?
- If this experience ultimately contributes to something positive, what might that be for me?
Have a great weekend!
Parker
