God I feel like crap. I’m totally at a loss for what to do… It’s like there is a fog in my mind. Everything is cloudy.
I slept in my Tipi last night, or for half the night anyway. I felt so uncomfortable that I couldn’t sleep, and then got a crazy head ache. I think I need to get a ground pad and a pillow. I feel like such a whiney asshole, but I was in serious discomfort. Since my bike accident, almost a year ago now, it’s been hard to sleep comfortably even on a nice bed. My shoulders neck and back just fucking ache.
Hey Urban Scout ~ I’m sorry you’re feeling so shitty!
How were you injured in the bicycling accident?
Have you tryed any of these things… Fasting, Stretching(yogaish), soaking in hot salts?
I say yogaish because I don’t really know anything about yoga. I don’t follow the rules of yoga very well, but stretching is one of my favorite methods of healing. I think it’s called the “cobra” pose… but it’s just stretching your spine backwards while lying on the ground. I’ve found that stretching out my spine helps heal every other part of my body. Or… it helps show me where else I need to focus my attention.
Fast! I can’t seem to get past 3 days on a water fast. I get really nauseous. But if I drink juice I can go for as long as I need.
Try to Keep your muscles really warm with a bath, fire, tea etc.
I suggest finding a pad and pillow (or two of both [remember fir boughs and grass works right?]), make yourself a warm cup of tea or coffee (a strong rosemary tea works well as a muscle relaxant), drink lots of water because it help lube up the joints and muscles, stretch a little after a warm up starting with your small muscle first and then large muscle later (try a forward and back bend “yogaish talk” 16 seconds each), walk or do a light jog for a mile or two, sweat and then wash, try not to carry to much weight (don’t carry anything on your shoulders [what your explaining sounds like a bike injury and especially like your shoulders have gone out from carry to much on them!]), have a quicky (not with yourself and use a condom), take it easy, rest in the sun today, last of all continue your way and lay on your back and put your legs and feet up on a chair or something for 15 minutes. I think it’s awesome to here that you have the opportunity to sleep in a tipi, last thing I’d want to here is that you’ve gone back to sleeping on mattress in conventional room. I’m telling you all of this because I care about you and because this stuff also works for me and many others. I’ve been using the floor (hardwood and carpet) for a bed for at least 5 years now and I’ve had to troubleshoot my way through it all this time. I don’t use mattresses or pads because they limit my movement but the floor is everywhere pretty much so I have get to have free range of movement all over the place. If anything I’ll fold up some blankets to add padding underneath me but for the most part I can sleep on bare ground as long as I have something soft to hold my neck in place so that it doesn’t strain and cause me to have a headache the next day when I make my first quick movement. If all else fails maybe it’s just a bad day for you…we all have them, and in no way are you a “whiney asshole” it wasn’t your fault (I’m sure) that you got into a car accident and, need I remind you, grew up being assimilated and influenced by the ways of “the culture of maximum harm”.
My post is bugging me. I didn’t mean to have all the emphasis on ME. I don’t want to sound like I know what is best for you… only what I know works for me. I hope that came though.
I love your words road runner man. And I totally agree… Urban Scout you are not a whiney asshole.
Scout, if I couldn’t sleep–especially if I had a crazy headache–then I would become a whiny asshole. But you don’t sound whiny or assholy. You sound like a man with a genuine complaint.
I did some yoga for a while, not too long after my baby was born, and it really did help me limber up in the mornings. (Damn, I need to get back to that shit.) But how to improve your sleeping situation in general?
Don’t be afraid of providing yourself some comfort out in the tipi. If you were a real plains native, you’d have that thing lined with some phat buffalo furs. So get yourself some padding.
I do not intend to replicate the kid from the book Into the Wild or the guy in the documentary Grizzly Man or the TV show Survivor Man or Man vs. Wild. Cheating death, extreme situations, running away to live in the woods or “making it back out alive†seem to stem from a belief that people should fear nature. I understand the elements can kill and I will not let myself freeze, starve, get eaten, die from sickness, etc. I take baby steps toward a primitive lifestyle; slowly but surely leaving civilization behind . Therefore [b]my health and hygiene, like that of the wild animal, lie at the top of my priorities[/b].
WILDEREX SAID, “Don’t be afraid of providing yourself some comfort out in the tipi. If you were a real plains native, you’d have that thing lined with some phat buffalo furs. So get yourself some padding.”
I totally agree with you WildeRex. I also believe it’s about just being there that counts even if someone has to take a king size bed into the wickiup or igloo ~for starters~ [lol, if that would even work].
Yes, I know your pain and guilt! When I was younger I could sleep anywhere. I quickly trained myself to be comfortable sleeping in all my clothes and my shoes in case I had to make an emergency getaway (This was when I fancied myself a spy rather than an scout). I would sleep with no pillow and try and sleep in a different place every night. In the car, in the middle of the yard, on the kitchen table…yeah I really got around. Then things changed. My health turned shitty. My back and neck hurt all the time. I lost all resilence. So many times I haven’t slept outside because I wanted to sleep well and I’m not used to sleeping outside and I rarely sleep well anywhere I’m not used to even if it was a 5-star hotel. But I agree with everyone else. Make it comfy. Make yourself a nice cattail pad and pillow if you want to go halfwild. Well, you might have to wait, but sometimes I find last year’s still intact. Most importantly give yourself sometime to get used to sleeping in the tipi. To ease the transition you might also try to wear yourself out during the day, do some physical labor or walk really far so you crash at night. Plus the moon was full last night (apr. 2nd). I always have trouble sleeping around the full moon.
So I’ve slept successfully two nights in a row in the Tipi… and I feel great.
I decided to use an old sleeping bag I have as my ground pad, and a crappy pillow from inside my friends Erins house. I’ve slept pretty well both nights, with minimal discomfort, and actual comfort. The weather is a touch warmer too. I had to piss pretty bad, and normally when I’m in a comfy bed I’ll wait till my bladder is about to explode before I get out from under the covers and expose my flesh to the cold. In the tipi though, I just don’t seem to care. I’ve gotten up and out to pee a few times in the yard, and haven’t really cared about the cold.
The mornings are the best though, waking up with the light of the sun and the sound of the birds (despite the sounds of cars and crack-heads). The Tipi is pretty damp though. I’ll need to figure out ways of keeping it dry (without fire) or maybe not. We’ll see.
