Boring Desk Job? Try A Tough Mudder

Ever wonder what drives people to pay good money to suffer through Tough Mudders and other grueling endurance events? Now we know. It’s their day jobs. Researchers at Cardiff University are convinced that pain and suffering, especially pain and suffering blended with team spirit, are the ideal antidote for the boredom of sitting at the desk all day. A University of Cardiff news release reports that researchers at the school believe that “pain helps people deal with the physical inactivity of office life, bringing the body into sharp focus and allowing participants who spend much of their time sitting in front of computers, to rediscover the nature of their body. Pain facilitates escape. It provides a temporary relief from the burdens of self-awareness.” Wait, there’s more: “Electric shocks and ice-cold water may be painful but they also allow participants to escape from the demands and anxieties of modern life. By leaving marks and wounds, painful experiences help us create the story of a fulfilled life spent exploring the limits of the body.” And more, this from the researchers’ paper: “By flooding the consciousness with gnawing unpleasantness, pain provides a temporary relief from the burdens of self-awareness. Finally, when leaving marks and wounds, pain helps consumers create the story of a fulfilled life. In a context of decreased physicality, market operators play a major role in selling pain to the saturated selves of knowledge workers, who use pain as a way to simultaneously escape reflexivity and craft their life narrative.”