The Comfort Crisis: Embrace Discomfort to Reclaim Your Wild, Happy, Healthy Self

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But my work also proves that modern science overlooks many key aspects of the human experience and living well. Those in the study who had faced adversity reported higher life satisfaction and fewer psychological and physical symptoms compared to those who’d spent their life sheltered. Yet our instinct to default to comfort works against us in a largely comfortable world, Easter points out. Then we headed back out into the center of the lake, set down the paddles, and just laid down on our boards to let the wind and the waves take us back towards the far end of the lake where we had started.

This study suggests you’d have to eat about seven croissants, 1,190 calories, to experience the same fullness you’d get from a single potato.We may not enjoy whatever discomfort we expose ourselves to in the moment—be it a physical, mental, or spiritual hardship—but doing so is key to personal growth and even just plain contentment. It’s encouraged us to move our bodies more (lots of floor space means room for stretching and exercising) and getting down to the floor to sit or sleep (and then getting back up again) means lots of movement that strengthens our legs. Compared to ages past, today’s world is a bona fide utopia for most people in the industrialized world. For a happy, healthy life, we need exercise – ideally outdoors, with other people, while carrying weights. Then a friend of mine offered me a contract to help with a short military training course that goes down a few times a year.

I’m 62 years old now and find rather than complain about what you don’t have, make the most of what you do have. All the people I know who have been diagnosed with cancer either spent their remaining short time in misery until they died, from the toxic treatments, or lived with impaired life quality due to the aforementioned toxic treatments.

Even being a fairly active person, it surprised me just how much a few hours of “functional” work (as opposed to “working out”) could have a noticeable positive effect on me. After reflecting on his ultra comfortable life, the author decided it was time to experience discomfort. Both Apple and Google state that they ensure that only users who have actually downloaded the app can submit a review.

I listened to the audiobook of Easter’s book from my library months ago, on recommendation from a friend, and Attila’s interview. This is also why I prefer to hang my laundry out to dry and use hedge shears instead of a powered hedge-trimmer. Thinking about death and impermanence can make us happier, and help us to live more meaningful lives. But for someone in their 20s looking to challenge themselves, I’ve always felt it is an amazing job.My neighbors stare at me with open-jawed disbelief, horror, amazement, cautions about all the dangers and risks I'm taking.

It seems like some stress and challenges will be a good thing — or at least I’ll remind myself of that once vacation mode wears off. Big deal”, I can already hear you saying, “Retired man experiences two minor incidents while taking a vacation in his luxury car. There’s a notion of expending energy for no purpose that makes it very difficult to mentally justify. I read The Comfort Crisis in three straight sittings and was so motivated and inspired that I immediately made changes to my daily routines.But instead of feeling depressed as I experienced this constant hardship, the opposite thing was happening: I felt more alive and more badass with each passing day. But we also need to keep this whole idea of excessive comfort in mind, and the damage it does to the natural human condition. Since publication, The Comfort Crisis has become a bestseller and been adopted by Major League Baseball teams, top-ranked NCAA D1 football programs, top-tier universities and law programs, major corporations, tier-one military units, and more. It is fine, but it’s not that for-filling a life as the lovely suffering I like to do with the aforementioned like-minded friends. Jordan Peterson’s ideas on the dangers of your comfort zone and voluntarily facing suffering/discomfort, or optimal challenge for students learning in the zone of proximal development?