The Comfort Crisis: Live Session Monday October 30th @ 7:00 PM et
Featured Innovator Steve Bierfeldt will join us to lead a discussion on how we can each be inspired by The Comfort Criss to get out of our comfort zone!
Fearless Journeys is in the middle of our trip to Medellin, Colombia and it has been spectacular!
Reading is something that we can still do while we travel, right? That’s how I like to “kill time” when “boredom” kicks in on planes, in airports, etc. And apps like Audible make it even easier when you just want something educational to listen to.
At this point, if you’re staying on pace with the Fearless Journeys reading schedule, you should have finished the book, The Comfort Crisis by Michael Easter. The homework this past week was to read the Epilogue and complete the book.
Whether or not you have been keeping up with the reading, you are invited to join us for our next live online session this Monday, October 30th at 7:00 PM ET, which will be led by Featured Innovator Steve Bierfeldt, who never seems to run out of ways of getting outside his comfort zone and challenging himself.
Today he is the founder of Sly Fox Enterprises, a Certified Instrument Rated Airplane Pilot, Remote (Drone) Pilot, and Advanced & Instrument Ground Instructor, and a State Farm Agency Team Member. Steve started his career in the political and public policy arena until he saw what he didn't want to become. He shifted gears, took a year to travel the world, and came back and started and led a variety of businesses including in the fitness and health & nutrition space. There is a full chapter on Steve Bierfeldt in my book, The American Dream is a Terrible Thing to Waste. Now you have the opportunity to directly connect and converse with Steve this Monday!
Steve also recently got engaged and will be leading this session only a week before he is married (so what’s your excuse not to join us? Steve isn’t making one!) While he is a man that has always gotten out of his comfort zone, this next stage of his life may be the biggest challenge he has yet to face!
Be sure to add this session to your calendar for Monday evening! We will be meeting on the Fearless Journeys space on the Circle platform. If you need your membership login information, please reply to this email so we can get you quickly set up.
***
In the Epilogue to The Comfort Crisis, author Michael Easter tells us that after his 32 days in the Alaskan back country, the first thing he looked forward to was a nice shower. I can only imagine!
That sets him off into a conversation about germs. We are fortunate to live in an era where we can constantly clean ourselves. However, he says, not all germs need to be killed. And because most people in today’s America have access to good hygiene, we have far less exposure to some of the micro organisms that can actually be beneficial to keeping us healthy. In other words, exposure to germs can help our bodies build the immunity it needs to toughen us.
Lack of exposure to germs puts us in a state of chronic inflammation. When this is combined with a lifetime of stress, sleep deprivation, and bad diets, it makes us more susceptible to chronic diseases and mental health issues.
“Dirt is good,” says Easter.
And when it comes to healthy living, a lot of us are overmedicating ourselves as well. Easter recommends to avoid taking antibiotics unless you really need them.
***
There is also another element of discomfort we need more frequent exposure to that makes this South Florida boy cringe. We need more exposure to cold temperatures.
He says that people who sleep in rooms that are in the mid 60s have a 10% increase in metabolic activity. There’s a new trend in things like ice baths. Easter says those are certainly help, but they also might be overkill. You don’t necessarily have to go that far, but no matter what method you chose, more exposure to cold temperatures is better for your body.
We also need to train our bodies more in higher altitude environments. Our bodies — particularly our muscles — become more efficient when we “train high” and “race low.” This is one reason Easter says those mountain misogis are the best.
***
Easter spends a good chunk of the Epilogue talking about how people from Iceland are some of the longest living in the world. Icelandic men, for example, live an average of 81.2 years. In contrast, U.S. men live to about 76 years on average and the worldwide average lifespan is 68 years.
This goes back to the many centuries of what people from Iceland had to endure. Iceland is windy, rainy, snowy, and in darkness for 3/4 of the year.
It’s a “shit place to live,” as one Icelander tells Easter. In other words, it’s lacking in many comforts.
The Vikings first came to Iceland around the 800 A.D. period. And most people who live there trace their roots back very far. Living in Iceland for 1100 years “has changed us,” said another Icelander. Easter says we are influenced by both our DNA and our environment and that seems to be what’s going on here with people from Iceland and what they are able to endure to keep them living longer, healthier lives.
***
Over a month after Michael Easter returned home from his 32 days in the Alaskan back country, he asked his wife if she recognized any changes in him. She said she had. She said nothing seems to bother him — or that it at least takes it longer for him to get irritated at anything.
Easter reports feeling more aware, living in the present, and having more gratitude for many more things including:
Awareness of time and how little we have of it
The importance of doing more novel things — not the same thing over and over; this seems to help time expand — new events help decelerate our perception of time.
Thinking less, noticing more
The importance of spending less time on screens and more time in nature
***
I hope you have gained a lot from reading The Comfort Crisis. It is a book that has already impacted me in profound ways and I want to continue to incorporate many of the lessons it teaches. Less screen time is a start. More time in nature is another great step. And: challenging ourselves to do harder things, embrace discomfort, and living a life filled with more gratitude. When we can do these things, the quality of our lives, our relationships with others, and our work will certainly improve.
Let’s talk about this Monday night, October 30th at 7:00 PM et with Featured Innovator Steve Bierfeldt! See you online.
***
P.S. The next book for November / December will be Inspired Every Day by Kevin Scott, another Featured Innovator in the Fearless Journeys community.