Jeff Hirsh Read: June 2024
Inspiration: Recommended by a friend as a uniquely engaging perspective on how to step out of one’s comfort zone
Summary
Written with the help of ChatGPT, below is a brief summary to understand what is covered in the book.
“The Comfort Crisis” , published in 2021 by fitness journalist, professor, and author Michael Easter, explores how modern society’s obsession with comfort is detrimental to our health and well-being. Easter embarks on a 33-day journey into the Alaskan wilderness, using this experience to illustrate the benefits of embracing discomfort. He argues that our ancestors’ ability to endure hardship was crucial for survival and that modern conveniences have made us physically and mentally weaker. The book combines personal anecdotes with scientific research to show how stepping out of our comfort zones can lead to significant personal growth. Ultimately, Easter encourages readers to seek out challenges and discomfort to reclaim a more fulfilling and resilient life.
Unedited Notes
Direct from my original book log, below are my unedited notes (abbreviations and misspellings included) to show how I take notes as I read.
Modern advances/life have created new forms of stress that are far more minute than centuries past, created a unique form of comfort induced stress on small things that serve to isolate from broader nature/experiences and bogs us down, “prevalence induced concept change” = idea that as we experience fewer problems, we do not become satisfied and in fact neutral non-problems begin to look like problems (ie threshold lowers as life gets better and continue with frustrations), why we get mad at traffic or material things or minor inconvenience, “comfort creep” = today’s comfort is tomorrow’s discomfort, we adapt and the old comforts become unacceptable—goalposts always moving, argument amongst hunters that in fact is more human/humane to know how animal lives before eat vs remove self via simple card swipe at grocery, “misogi” is a japanese concept of a hard brain, body, spirit reboot via putting self thru something challenging (go to your edge and learn potential, essentially a flow state), misogis should be something fail at roughly half the time (or more)—give your all and barely make it if you do, misogis are internal adventures/test (do for yourself and reflection, not to post on socials), P3 Training founded by Dr Marcus Elliott embraces misogis for athletes as well as deep analytics/science—used by best NBA players to improve physical and mental play, research in evolutionary and social psychology indicates once exceed group of 150 people then have decline in subjective well being and social narratives trickier/conflict, this is why as now 85% of americans live in urban areas (vs 5% in 1776) do we see social complications and well being declines, fear of failing is has evolutionary roots b/c failure often meant death in nature, now though “failure” is for things very far from death and causes undue anxiety over small things, today people use media 11+ hrs per day—any form of media requires the brain to be in “focus mode”, “unfocused mode” is boredom mode where let mind wander and this fosters creativity/replenishment, however today we rarely allow time nor are comfortable with unfocused mode, overeating is largely due to building habits in response to stress—when stressed either can eat or walk for example, ease of access to junk food lends to stress eating, need to be aware to think whether truly needed or simply reward/stress driven, important to allow 12-16 hrs between final meal of day and first of next for proper cell cleansing, 24 hr stints without food is good, get comfortable with hunger can clean the body, skipping breakfast can be very good for you (cereal industry funded noise that need breakfast) as allows time for break down of food and cells properly from day prior, 25% of all medicare spending is on 5% of patients in their last year of life, no longer comfortable with death as once were, Bhutan ranks as one of the happiest countries and attribute a piece to buddhist mindset which all consistently think about death—keeps one grounded and true to self, shouldn’t try to forget/distance self from idea that everyone dies—it should help guide you,
