There are a few problems we urban dwellers deal with on a daily basis. One is the feeling that we know what the right thing to do is and yet we seem to be unable to bridge the divide between intention and action. I know it would be good to help push the car that’s stuck in the snow, but I’m also unaware that doing so would be unpleasant. And will he likely thank me once his car wheels are no longer spinning? Best to put my head down and move on, I think.

The other problem is that we feel distracted by email and social media, both of which promise that something mildly pleasant is just around the corner. Maybe there’s news that the article I submitted a month ago has now been accepted. Or an inquiry I sent out has finally been acknowledged. Wouldn’t it be a good idea to check my email one more time–just before midnight?

The Stoics believed what recent research in neuroscience has begun to confirm: that bad habit formation gets in the way of our happiness, making it more difficult over time to retrain ourselves to perform tasks that will require certain virtues–courage, prudence, perseverance–in order to be fulfilled. (Reader, while I write this, my eye keeps glancing toward the tab opened to my email. Surprisingly, there’s still nothing.) Neuroscientists now believe that our brain is more plastic than had been hitherto thought. The first two years of life do not lay down all our neural circuity; rather, pathways are drawn and re-drawn throughout our life as a result of patterns of thought and behavior.

We’d do well to take this to heart and to reflect on its meaning in the context of our moral and prudential undertakings. Taking this to heart, though, means not just thinking about tallying up our good and bad habits, those habits that have made us what we are; it also means doing something in order to modify our behavior.

Perhaps we could try a few exercises which involve submitting to things hot and cold. Try going outside–you’ll think I’m reckless–a little bit underdressed. Maybe leave your gloves behind one day. Can you feel the dull feel of pain in your hands as you walk to the subway or to your car? Observe the pain without deeming it “good” or “bad.” Feel the sting as it radiates. Then note how it starts to ‘soften’, the sensations spreading here and there. The pain may become, as it were, less painful as you suspend your value judgments and as you no longer concerned about yourself insofar as you are an individual. Could you also try sitting cross-legged, observing the floor dig into your ankle bone and your hips creak? And why not turn the shower on a touch too cold? Can you extend your pain tolerance?

Similarly, try submitting yourself to things that are too hot: sip your coffee or tea before it’s cooled; squeeze the hot tea bag with your fingers; turn the temperature in the shower a notch above normal. What do you observe?

The immediate aim with these exercises is, over time, to learn how to bear slightly uncomfortable situations. The larger aim is to retrain yourself how to act virtuously despite the overwhelming feeling that doing so would be markedly unpleasant and how to resist the distractions and temptations of everyday life despite their undeniable allure.