The Stoics have a practice referred to as “voluntary discomfort” where you intentionally go without or put yourself in uncomfortable situations. For me, hiking and sleeping outside serve that purpose. Once you realize that all you need is a place to sleep, even if it’s in a “vindskydd”, tent or under a tarp, something to eat and something to wear, everything else is secondary. After a week of hiking, everything feels like luxury when I come home again, including the constant temperature inside the house, the soft bed and the shower. We have a tendency to first experience something as a luxury, but it soon becomes a necessity that we can’t do without and the next luxury comes along. It is easy to keep climbing the hedonistic treadmill, but I believe it is good to remind yourself periodically that you need very little and that most things in our lives are luxuries. What do you really need?