I think I was interpreting it as a once-in-a-while experiment, while you were interpreting it as a permanent change. Looking back, I can’t tell which the OP had in mind.
A rational thinking being is not all we are, but it is the defining characteristic which separates us from lower beasts.
I don’ t think avoiding the things which make life worth living would be a rational choice. Similarly, I don’t think being rational necessarily means being a productive member of society. The drive to wealth, power and social status are fundamentally irrational.
To maintain a balance you must be able to choose when to indulge your baser instincts, which means establishing conscious control over them.
To practice. A dumbbell for the mind.
Why would you want to compete in a marathon?
It’s no more an extreme approach than is joining a gym if you want to become a bricklayer. You must strengthen your back before you take up the hod.
You’re taking the Buddhistic third-way approach, while I favour an ascetic approach, largely inspired by the teachings of Epicurus.
Rather, psychical exercise should be pursued neither because it is unpleasant, nor because it increases physical fitness, but rather because it inures one to future hardships and forms the habit of mental control over the body.
If you’ve got a broken leg, I suggest you go to a doctor. Maybe take lower doses of the painkillers than recommended.
If only I had devoted more time to mastering sleep. Sleep, mankind’s truest enemy. First it got Gilgamesh, then it got me.
However, people who don’t sleep much seem to be reprehensible, hard-working, productive personages, such as Maggie Thatcher’s famous four hours a night. I’ll stick to eight. Twelve, maybe, after a hard day.
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of reason.
Classically, it’s the voice that scolds one when one does not exercise, study, or practice. The OP could be said to play the voice of the superego, in urging us to act for our own betterment.