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Discover the evolutionary mind and body benefits of living at the edges of your comfort zone and reconnecting with the wild. In many ways, we’re more comfortable than ever before.

But could our sheltered, temperature-controlled, overfed, underchallenged lives actually be the leading cause of many our most urgent physical and mental health issues? In this gripping investigation, award-winning journalist Michael Easter seeks out off-the-grid visionaries, disruptive genius researchers, and mind-body conditioning trailblazers who are unlocking the life-enhancing secrets of a counterintuitive solution: discomfort.

Easter’s journey to understand our evolutionary need to be challenged takes him to meet the NBA’s top exercise scientist, who uses an ancient Japanese practice to build championship athletes; to the mystical country of Bhutan, where an Oxford economist and Buddhist leader are showing the world what death can teach us about happiness; to the outdoor lab of a young neuroscientist who’s found that nature tests our physical and mental endurance in ways that expand creativity while taming burnout and anxiety; to the remote Alaskan backcountry on a demanding thirty-three-day hunting expedition to experience the rewilding secrets of one of the last rugged places on Earth; and more.

Along the way, Easter uncovers a blueprint for leveraging the power of discomfort that will dramatically improve our health and happiness, and perhaps even help us understand what it means to be human. The Comfort Crisis is a bold call to break out of your comfort zone and explore the wild within yourself.

I’ve seen a few people mention this book, and I’m currently in my own season of discomfort, so I wanted to give this book a try.

A fascinating read.

I appreciate that this book is built on scientific research and not simply “this worked for me.” Easter talked to expert after expert after expert to show readers the truth about everything from the impact of cell phone usage to eating for weight loss to the benefits of antibacterial hand soap. He talked about all of the issues he faced while prepping for and experiencing a push outside of his comfort zone.

For the person who wants to find the easy way to health and wholeness, this will be a difficult read (if they can even make themselves read the whole thing). But for the person looking for encouragement and motivation in optimizing or better understanding their physical and mental health, this is an incredible read. (And for Christians like myself, it’s fascinating to take his findings and lay them over the truths and promises of Scripture to see how this information reinforces what the Bible teaches.)

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For more books on mental health, check out:

The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel Van Der Kolk, M.D.
Radical Love by Zachary Levi