Body
Our body is our temple. Here are tips, suggestions and aids in keeping it fine tuned for living the life you’ve been blessed with.
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Avoidance, Agency, and the Hard Work of Engagement
Avoidance rarely looks like fear—it usually looks like tomorrow. Drawing from The Hardiness Effect, Scripture, Viktor Frankl, C.S. Lewis, the Desert Fathers, and timeless Christian wisdom, this field note explores how avoidance diminishes agency and how faithful engagement forms courage, responsibility, and resilient character one decision at a time. Continue reading
Acedia, Agency, Avoidance, C.S. Lewis, Character, Christian Living, Courage, Discipleship, Dr. Paul Taylor, Habits, John Mark Comer, Jordan Peterson, mental-health, Personal Development, Personal Growth, Resilience, Spiritual Disciplines, Spiritual Formation, The Hardiness Effect, Viktor Frankl, Virtue -
The World That Trains Us
We are shaped long before we realize it. Drawing from The Hardiness Effect, Augustine, James K.A. Smith, Pascal, and Scripture, this field note explores how ordinary habits quietly train our loves—and how intentional practices can retrain our hearts toward what is true, good, and beautiful. Continue reading
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Recovery in Plain Sight: Movement, Sunlight, Sleep, and Nature
Recovery is not escape from hardiness. It is part of how hardiness is built. This CTK essay explores movement, sunlight, sleep, and nature as ordinary gifts that help the body and soul return to rhythm, presence, and strength before pressure becomes wear and exhaustion becomes the atmosphere. Continue reading
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The Practice of Resistance: Stress Adaptation and the Life of the Soul
Stress adaptation is more than a performance idea. Drawing on Paul Taylor and the traditional spiritual disciplines, this CTK essay explores how fasting, silence, Sabbath, simplicity, and prayer use manageable resistance to reveal appetite, noise, hurry, and control, training us to become more available to God under pressure. Continue reading
Agency, Appetite, Attention, Brother Lawrence, C.S. Lewis, Chosen Friction, Comfort as Formation, Dallas Willard, Digital Distraction, Discipline, Dr. Paul Taylor, Faith, Fasting, Hardiness, John Mark Comer, Prayer, Recovery, Resistance, Silence, Simplicity, Spiritual Formation, The Good Pressure, The Hardiness Effect, Virtue -
Challenge, Control, Commitment, Connection: A Field Guide for Hardiness
Hardiness has a shape: challenge, control, commitment, and connection. This CTK essay explores Dr. Paul Taylor’s Four Cs as practices for standing steady under pressure, recovering agency, resisting drift, and staying rooted in community. A practical Four-C Audit helps readers move from reflection to action. Continue reading
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The Good Pressure: How Stress Can Build Us Without Breaking Us
Stress is not always the enemy. In the right amount, pressure can strengthen the body, sharpen the mind, and train the soul. This CTK essay explores hormesis, Taylor’s sweet spot of stress, and the wisdom needed to choose challenges that build us without tipping into overload or foolishness. Continue reading
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Chosen Friction: The Wise Practice of Voluntary Discomfort
Chosen friction is the wise practice of small, voluntary discomfort before life brings hardship we did not choose. This CTK essay explores how fasting, silence, effort, honesty, and ordinary resistance train freedom from comfort, appetite, and avoidance, offering a seven-day challenge for practicing strength without recklessness. Continue reading
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Digital Distraction and Resistance: Reclaiming Attention in an Age of Noise
Digital distraction is more than wasted time. It is a formation system that trains attention toward interruption, escape, outrage, and impulse. In this CTK essay we explore how broader digital life weakens resistance, why attention matters for wisdom and courage, and offers three simple practices for reclaiming agency. Continue reading
Advent Adventure Agency Albums Apostle Paul Aristotle Art of Manliness Attention Benjamin Franklin Books Breathing Brother Lawrence C.S. Lewis Challenges Character Christianity Christmas Comfort Culture Courage Creativity Culture Dallas Willard Desert Island Music Discipline Dr. Paul Taylor Emerson Epictetus Faith Focus G.K. Chesterton Goals God Goethe Goodreads Gratitude Habit Hardiness Health & Fitness History Honor Hope Humility Industry Interviews J.R.R. Tolkien James Clear Jesus John Eldredge John Mark Comer Justice Laird Hamilton Leadership Love Manliness Marcus Aurelius Mark Twain Mental Toughness Mindfulness Money Music Music 80’s Music 1980 Music 1981 Music 1987 Non-fiction Oliver Wendell Holmes Order Oswald Chambers Peace Personal Development Prayer Prophet Isaiah Quotes Recovery Resilience Resolution Resurrection Band Rick Rubin Routines & Rituals Saint Augustine Saint Thomas Aquinas Self-Reliance Seneca Silence Spiritual Formation T. S. Elliot Temperance The Choir The Hardiness Effect Theodore Roosevelt The Police Thomas A Kempis Tim Ferriss Training U2 Virtue Willpower Winston Churchill WODs Writers
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