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Sounds like the philosophy of Diogenes (the Cynic), who lived a simple/austere lifestyle and “took to toughening himself against nature”, “deliberately rejected common standards of material comfort”, and “maintained that all the artificial growths of society were incompatible with happiness and that morality implies a return to the simplicity of nature.” While I like his emphasis on self-sufficiency, I have mixed feelings on his other ideas, like the need for natural, uninhibited behavior, regardless of social conventions. I can see why the Cynics contempt for ease and pleasure got fashioned into the school of Stoicism. Do you think your article on that and desire is related to the Buddhist idea that the cause of suffering is desire? Or Dr. 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? If you like Attia and Huberman, you may like people they’ve done podcasts with like Peterson. Neuroscience and medicine meet psychology!
Only then, once you reach these minimum basic things for human survival, should you expect that more exotic and niche medicines and treatments are the only course of action.
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MMM, you’re always there when I need a boost. Thank You! Is it wrong that the only thing I thought of when seeing the eagle drawn on the new car is the scratches in the clear coat that’s going to leave that will need polished out. I guess I am looking for things to worry about. Reply As we experience fewer problems, we don’t become more satisfied. We just lower our threshold for what we consider a problem .“ It's a well-known fact that while we are wired to eat and seek comfort we are equally wired up to avoid danger, risk and to minimize unnecessary movement (exercise). Madison Avenue knows this well and markets products to capitalize on the slothfulness and gluttony. Moving your body, even a bit, has enormous benefits – again to almost all people towards reducing the probability and severity of almost all diseases. So can you imagine the benefit of moving your body for several hours per day in a natural environment, and including heavy load bearing and bits of extreme exertion?
This reads like David Goggins propaganda, or like it was written by someone who'd seriously consider electing Joe Rogan for president. I agree with the basic premise, ie, that we ought to get outside more and push past our overly-cushioned modern, Western lives. Yet, I think Easter takes this too far. I will say that I enjoyed his discussion with the food guy, but that was pretty much the only part I liked.Ironically, being alone in nature can combat that very state. Enjoying the natural world can tame the mind chatter and give you moments of complete silence, which are rare nowadays. We’re never truly by ourselves anymore. We’re constantly connected to other people, if only via our phones, TVs, or laptops. For example, I am vegan, and this comes with discomfort. I believe it is a way to make the world better. I will be happy to point out why I think it’s better to change to a vegan lifestyle. Some people though, will say that things are good, or I see things that are minuscule. I don’t see this as part of comfort, but actually people who don’t want to change are in their bubble of conformity. I agree with you that the modern Western world is filled with comfort, no matter how often and how loud some folks complain and make it seem like the modern world is horrible, I just read a post on Reddit about how expensive cafe food is in Melbourne, gimme a break, but I do think that while our lives are comfortable, they are stressful and in particular stress related to time. the Yale Cancer Center, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and Massachusetts General Hospital supports this notion. It found that dying patients who had open conversations about their death experienced a better quality of life in the weeks and months leading to their passing, as judged by their family members and nurse practitioners.”
I do go through a lot of super detailed blood tests and other different kinds of scans and screenings (one reason I love my direct primary care membership! https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2020/11/09/direct-primary-care/) and so far everything looks really good to me. Another issue : though “suffering” in comfortable situations is ridiculous, being happy even in awful conditions is also odd, a kind of conformism I reject. For example, in my country (Mexico), many people don´t see the ugliness, noise and dirt of their neighborhood, or they perceive it and say “So, what´s the problem?”. That´s another extreme we should avoid. Reply Good points Chris – I have not read the full book of Outlive yet, but I’ve listened to enough of his interview/podcast summaries to get the main points. Interestingly, I had put off cleaning the cars because I hate auto detailing and I keep telling myself I should outsource since I don’t get any enjoyment from it. However, after my recent experience, I think I will keep it as something I do for myself (perhaps upping the frequency to every couple of weeks) and draw my joy from the good feeling of getting a good night’s rest and waking up so refreshed the next day. ReplyOne way to keep perspective about problems is to put your skills to work for someone with real problems. I do pro bono legal work for asylum seekers and wow, my yard may have weeds but their families are trapped in Kabul or they’ve been beaten up by Chavista thugs in Venezuela or … something that’s a real problem, that I have real skills to help with. It’s good for me and I recommend it. Reply
Needing to artificially create challenges for ourselves is necessary, but also a privilege. We all need to be grateful for this privilege and remember it when we are in the dumps over our first-world problems. Reply Along the way,Easter uncovers a blueprint for leveraging thepower of discomfort that will dramatically improve our health and happiness, and perhaps even help us understand what it means to be human.The Comfort Crisisis a bold call tobreak out of your comfort zone and explore the wild within yourself. In a series of recent interviews, Ukrainian people living in the war zones of their occupied country were asked “is it safe to live where you live?” and a strangely high percentage still said “Yes” – not all that different from the responses of US residents when asked the same question about their own cities.Why not park somewhere else, either as close to the garage entrance as you can or maybe even somewhere down the street on the “home” side of work if practical. And then still run whatever streets and staircases up/down as many times as you like? Reply So cool that you just posted this as I had a similar experience last week. Thanks in large part to your blog, I retired over a year ago, and stuff has been pretty chill. But I’ve been struggling with finding a new purpose and fulfillment since leaving my crazy job. Tried the full time stay at home dad thing, and that was definitely not me. Solitude can help you reconnect with the most important person in the world – yourself. Allowing your mind, body, and spirit to sync will strengthen your sense of identity. Ironically, once you get comfortable in your own skin, people will start to like you more as well. However, the most important part is to find yourself and tame loneliness in the process. It’s not every day that you see someone purposefully giving up their highly digitized life, their favorite couch spot, and their little rituals. However, the author decided to embark on this life-changing experience. He wanted to try out his ancestor’s way of living by camping in Alaska for one month. And during this time, he had to switch to survival mode. While it wasn’t the easiest thing to do, he’s learned many valuable lessons along the way.
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