The Comfort Crisis offers solutions to modern-day physical and mental health problems. For this, you have to learn to be comfortable in discomfort, which means spending some time in the jungles to strengthen yourself.
Learn to Get Out of Your Comfort Zone and Live in Discomfort.
Are you feeling comfortable wherever you are? Sitting on a comfortable couch, or driving such a car? Modern life is very comfortable for many people like us, especially when we compare it with the life of our ancestors. The author decided to step out of his comfort zone and spend a month hunting in the jungles of Alaska, where He thinks that he will die in Bhutan. What did he find?
We can all learn a lot by putting ourselves in mental and physical discomfort. This can become the path to true happiness for us. In this summary you will learn, how just spending 3 days in the jungles can change you? Why should we eat and exercise like our ancestors, and why are Bhutanese some of the happiest people in the world?
Modern life is comfortable but cannot keep us happy.
The writer would wake up every morning from his soft and comfortable bed. Drive to the office and work there sitting on a luxurious chair. As soon as he felt bored, he started looking at his smartphone. He used to spend his evenings sitting on a comfortable couch and watching TV while eating junk food. Even his exercise routine was very comfortable, he used to exercise in an air conditioned gym.
Overall, his life was going well. He had given up alcohol addiction with a lot of hard work to achieve this peaceful and comfortable lifestyle. But one day he asked himself the question, what if I step out of this comfort zone?
For thousands of years, everyday life was a big challenge, to stay alive one had to struggle a lot. Our ancestors have spent almost every moment of their life looking for food and a place to live. But it is only recently in human history that human beings have started taking their happiness and comfort lightly, such as a permanent food supply. There is no doubt that our life has become very easy but not necessary. That the person living in the comfort zone should be happy.
In fact, in this modern lifestyle, man is so depressed and stressed as never was. The physical stress of living life in the earlier times has been replaced by the mental stress, anxiety and burnout of today’s era. Trying to lose ourselves in food, alcohol and screen time only adds to our distractions.
However, our body is such that we look for comfort but it is not necessarily always good. Some orthologists believe that we were very happy thousands of years ago in today’s comparison. We used to have very simple needs which could be met very easily. We were naturally mindful and lived the present moment.
Physical challenges and new experiences improve our mental health.
One is to go for a walk and one is to walk about, walkabout is a kind of tradition of Aboriginal Australians. Under this, young men roam in the Australian outback facing 100 degree Fahrenheit temperatures for 6 months. In this challenge, along with the scarcity of food and living, the world’s most dangerous snakes are also involved. In many communities of the world, there are such passages, ceremonies to go from one phase of life to another. Faced with such difficult challenges, people return home with better physical and mental health and better identity.
On the other hand, many young Americans are not allowed to go out without any supervision. Concerned parents remove any difficulties in their children’s life in advance and try not to reach them at all. Challenges of any kind make us stronger, and this phenomenon is called ‘The Toughening’. Theory’. Researchers from the University of Buffalo conducted research on different and large numbers of Americans whether they had a condition like love, fear of death or some serious disease in their life. After that the researchers also analyzed the health of the participant.
Interestingly, those who had seen ups and downs in their lives had better mental health and overall satisfaction levels. The difficult experiences of his life had made him tough, he seemed ready for any new challenge that came in his life.
Of course, it is not at all good for us to live life in completely negative experiences. But even a comfortable life is not good. We need to strike a balance. To some extent, this means being on the lookout for new experiences and challenges, and creating one’s own Passage Tradition. The author became aware of its benefits even before reaching Alaska. He changed his usual routine by preparing for this trip.
Instead of watching the same old TV show, he decided to learn survival skills and learn about calorie requirements.
Through boredom, loneliness and spending time close to nature, we can recharge ourselves.
If he shouted, no one could hear him; even if he danced without clothes, no one could see him. Because he was completely alone in the middle of the forest of Alaska. The writer felt free there. After spending a few hours there, the author began to think that in today’s era, how rare the real Solitude, the real solitude, has become. We are never alone. Due to technology, we are constantly in contact with some person or thing. Yet almost 50% of Americans claim that they are single. It is even called the Loneliness Epidemic.
Strange as it may sound, but the best way to cope with loneliness is to be alone. If you are comfortable being with yourself, then the fear of loneliness will end, even in this pandemic lockdown. Studies show that there are many benefits of being alone, such as creativity increases in you and you become a more empathetic person.
Being bored is beneficial, especially for your creativity, but we have become so dependent on this smartphone that we can’t tolerate being bored in the slightest. As a result we burn out and have to go through mental fatigue. Burnout is a situation in which a person feels physically and mentally tired.
Sometimes doing nothing is more beneficial for our brain. To recharge ourselves like the phone recharges, we need to leave this smartphone screen and spend some time looking at the trees and plants in nature.
Many studies show the benefits of spending time outside. For example, the Japanese have a concept of “forest bathing”. Just by spending 2 hours in the jungles, our anxiety, stress and depression are greatly reduced. The special thing is that spending time in nature also benefits those with heart and kidney disease. Any kind of natural environment is beneficial, but to know the real benefits of nature, you have to go around the forests.
Distinguish Between Cravings and Actual Hunger, and Know That Sometimes It’s Good To Be Hungry.
Fat diets are not effective. Only 3% of those who lose weight are able to keep a distance from it. Some of the problem is that we don’t know how much we eat. Here for example, a 1992 study on overweight people showed that people who thought they ate around 1,000 calories of junk food actually ate double that. Why is it so difficult for us to eat less?
Once again the matter turns around and comes to our comfort, we are unable to tolerate or ignore hunger. Food cravings are normal. Our desire to eat sweet or calorie-laden snacks has an evolutionary motive.
Think how our ancestors must have lived thousands of years ago. At that time, food was not easily available, so they had to preserve food in their stomach, which means that our ancestors used to eat a little more so that if food is not available at the next time, then their work can go on. There is no need to worry whether we will get the next meal or not. But that craving of ours remains intact, we now eat more due to stress, habit or boredom, not to save food in the stomach. There is no hunger to eat as much as we eat.
There is a very simple secret to losing weight, eat less food and eat only when you are really hungry. Try to avoid eating food as soon as you feel a little hungry. For example, if you are under stress and you feel like eating something special, then choose to go for a walk instead.
You will soon realize that you were not really hungry. Fasting for a short period of time is also beneficial. Autophagy is a biological process that removes weak cells from inside our body. This is the body’s own way of removing the dirt inside itself,
In this, the cells associated with cancer, Alzheimer’s and other diseases are also removed. When we eat continuously, our body is not able to carry out this important process. During his camping in Alaska, the author made himself comfortable with the discomfort of tolerating a little hunger. It was very difficult in the beginning, but over time he realized the importance of food and learned a lot about his new habit and hunger. However, for the next life lesson, he needed to go on a completely different journey.
By thinking about death and accepting that nothing is permanent, we can lead a happier and more meaningful life.
The writer’s life was going well but one day he learned about the cosmic calendar while listening to the podcast. This concept sums up the existence of 14 billion years in one year. The Big Bang happened at midnight on 1 January. This earth came into existence in the month of September. Dinosaurs disappeared on 30 December. And man did not come into existence till 31 December 11:59.
When the author heard this, he got upset. Suddenly he was terrified of his death and the realization that he had no importance in this world. The feeling that he and his own would soon die was making the writer very uncomfortable.
In Western culture, we avoid thinking about death. When someone of ours leaves, we are advised to stay busy and not think about it. But in the country named Bhutan of Eastern Himalayas, people see death from another perspective. Infact, he is incarcerated to think about his death at least 3 times a day. Clay pyramids are made from the ashes of those who have passed away and are kept in public areas. After all, death is part of life.
The author’s interest grew due to Bhutan being one of the happiest countries in the world and he decided to go there. In this journey, he learned about the Buddhist believe and understood that we can be happier by thinking about our death and the changing nature of life.
Another way to understand this can be that death is a mountain and every day we are moving towards the edge. We can’t run away from it, so we shouldn’t even hold back. But we can change the way to reach there by choosing a slow and spiritual route. Instead of being afraid of what has to happen, we should be thankful, accept reality and lead a mindful life.
Changing your attitude towards death is not easy. But if you want to be happy then think about that mountain and think how you can improve your journey. But this does not mean that you should mentally make a check list. More important than any success is your outlook on life.
If you really like this “The Comfort Crisis Book Summary” by Growthex then you can also check out some more amazing posts | summaries which are freely available on this platform :