The Comfort Crisis: Embrace Discomfort to Reclaim Your Wild, Happy, Healthy Self

The Comfort Crisis examines the relationship between the modern comforts of life and their impact on health and well-being. The book argues that while advancements in technology and society have undoubtedly made life easier and more convenient, they also have unintended consequences on our physical and mental health.

Easter begins by highlighting how our ancestors lived in environments that demanded constant physical activity and adaptability. In contrast, the modern lifestyle, characterized by sedentary habits and convenience at every turn, has led to a significant decrease in physical exertion. Easter’s experiences in the Alaskan wilderness, where he faces physical challenges unknown in his regular life, serve as a reminder of how far-removed modern living is from our evolutionary needs. In tandem with these personal anecdotes, he presents scientific research to demonstrate how the shift toward comfort has contributed to the rise in lifestyle diseases such as obesity, heart disease, and mental illness.

Key to this contention is the idea that humanity simply has not had time to adapt to its new environment. Easter reflects on the rapid evolution of modern conveniences and their impact on lifestyles:

The modern comforts and conveniences that now most influence our daily experience—cars, computers, television, climate control, smartphones, ultraprocessed food, and more—have been used by our species for about 100 years or less (14-15).

This quote highlights the brief period within the vast expanse of human history in which modern comforts have existed. It serves as a reminder of the drastic shift from an ancestral lifestyle to the present, suggesting a misalignment between evolved needs and contemporary living conditions.

That misalignment extends to humans’ psychological needs. Easter suggests that the human brain thrives on overcoming challenges and that the absence of such obstacles can lead to a sense of unfulfillment and ennui. He points out that comfort, though desirable in moderation, can lead to a plateau in personal development, suggesting that a certain degree of hardship and struggle is essential for mental growth and happiness.

The monotonous nature of modern life and its effect on our perception of time crystallizes Easter’s overall claims about comfort’s dangers: “But as each passing year converts some of this experience into automatic routine that we hardly note at all, the days and the weeks smooth themselves out in recollection to contentless units, and the years grow hollow and collapse” (62). This contemplation underscores how modern comforts, in simplifying life, also strip it of meaningful challenges and experiences. The image of time collapsing into “contentless units” captures the essence of a life devoid of significant engagement, pointing toward the need for reintroducing physical and mental challenges for a more fulfilling existence. Toward the book’s final sections, Easter presents our modern aversion to thinking about death as the ultimate comfort. This is another barrier that Easter seeks to dismantle by employing personal stories of his run-ins with death (the hunt and the Bhutanese monk).