Michael Easter Discovered How to Embrace Discomfort to Live a Happier Life
- Christine Flaherty
- Apr 25, 2022
- 5 min read
Updated: Apr 15, 2023
A professor at UNLV discovered how people can live happier lives if they learn how to embrace discomfort.
Michael Easter, the author of The Comfort Crisis, and a professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) learned how to embrace discomfort to improve his health and happiness. Ken Vennera, the Chief of Staff for a nonprofit military organization called Misson Six Zero, teaches people how to embrace discomfort based on the book Deliebate Discomfort.
Before Easter started working at UNLV, he worked as a contributing editor at Men’s Health magazine and columnist for Outside magazine. His work focused on modern science and human well-being. While working at Men’s Health magazine, he went hunting off the grid for thirty-three days in Kotzebue, Alaska.
“It was interesting because I had this idea of discomfort, and then out there it was like you were introduced to all these forms of discomfort that humans don’t experience that often anymore,” Easter said.
While hunting off the grid, he needed to carry his belongings everywhere. If he wanted to drink water he needed to hike uphill to get it.
“It got me interested in this idea of how has the world changed over time,” Easter said.
Easter said humans evolved to improve their survival. These survival instincts still impact the way humans behave.
“People overeat,” Easter said. “People love calorie-filled food and when we have that we overeat it. That’s because as we were evolving as a species there was never enough food around.”
However, Easter noticed that humans evolved not only to survive but to be more comfortable.
“We evolved to fix things like it’s cold outside. Now we can set the temperature all the time,” Easter said. “We’re hungry. 80% of eating is driven by something other than real hunger because we’re bored or stressed.”
Easter said that humans made great progress by making their lives easier or more comfortable. However, always doing the next comfortable thing will bear consequences.
“A comfortable life doesn’t require effort,” Vennera said. “You’re getting things easily. It’s the absence of obstacles in whatever you’re doing whether it’s family, your job, you know all those things that sort of make up our lives.”
Vennera said the dangerous moments in life occur when someone feels complacent like they paid their dues. They want to relax and stop putting effort into overcoming new obstacles.
“You want to sit back and say I put in a good effort here. I worked hard,” Veneera said. “Those are dangerous moments because the minute you shut off that switch in your mind, you put yourself in a bad spot.”
Easter said people who do not have enough discomfort in their lives will remain discontent and feel less alive.
“What seems to happen is that sweet spot of having just enough challenges,” Easter said. “Learn from it. Learn about yourself. Learn that you can overcome things, and I think that applied to my home life.”
Easter grew up in a single-parent household in Northern Utah. He did not grow up with his father or develop a relationship with him. His mother traveled for work about a third of the year, so he spent the majority of his childhood with nannies.
“It was my mom and a rotating cast of nannies,” Easter said. “It made me more adaptable around new people, more comfortable around new people, and better at reading people. Better at talking to people that sort of thing.”
Although his childhood, seemed strange he said it turned out well in the end.
“There’s a lot of research that says it’s not a good thing for people if we have way too many challenges, but it’s equally bad to not have enough challenges,” Easter said. “To not have anything bad ever happen to you.”
Vennera said an uncomfortable life requires effort. Someone with an uncomfortable life must overcome obstacles.
“If you don’t feel like you’re stretching then you’re probably too comfortable,” Vennera said. “Think literally of a stretching exercise. If you don’t feel that twinge of pain you’re not stretching.”
While working at Men’s Health, Easter noticed that if someone wanted to improve their health they needed to go through discomfort before they saw a benefit.
“If you want to improve your fitness, improve your health, you’re going to have to work out,” Easter said. “You want to lose weight. You’re going to have to eat less food. You’re going to be hungry.”
Easter said when looking at the diet industry the amount of options makes it confusing for people to know what diet to choose. However, people can follow any diet and still lose weight.
“But most people fall off the bandwagon, and the question is why does that happen,” Easter asked.
Easter said people want to go back to their old ways to feel comfortable.
“Just realizing that I’m a part of this bargain, and I’m not going to starve to death,” Easter said. “It’s not an emergency. I’m safe. I have food around. It’s all a part of the process.”
Vennera said people can only fully understand how to add deliberate discomfort into their lives or overcome uncomfortable situations they encounter when they learn how to overcome fear and intimidation.
“Unless you’re in a life or death situation specifically, no one is going to die of failure,” Vennera said. “There’s nothing that’s not recoverable other than death.”
Vennera said external and internal forces intimidate people. People get intimidated by other people, lack of skill, lack of knowledge, and feel insecure when they get uncomfortable.
“When somebody has to get up and speak in front of a large group, it’s that fear of failure,” Veneera said. “When you’re trying to do something new, it’s fear of failure that is confronting you.”
Veneera said if people felt confident about everything then they would do everything they want.
“Failure is not final. No one ever died from embarrassment. You start to understand those failure moments can be really productful for you,” Veneera said. “They don’t need to be stops or walls in your life. They can be progression moments. “
Veneera said the author of Deliberate Discomfort, Jason Van Camp, created a sixty-day workout challenge that empowers people to overcome fear and discomfort. The challenge encourages people to not give up because if they skip a day of the challenge they have to restart from day one.
“The sixty-day challenge with discomfort Jason wrote that is really key is switching on that mindset to understand okay I didn’t do well here,” Veneera said. “What didn’t I do well? How can I learn from that and propel myself forward?”
Easter said when people look back at the bad things that happened to them they can usually find a positive outcome.
“When bad things happen to us what tends to happen is that we often look back on them as a positive experience. Like you know what that was really hard, but I walked away,” Easter said. “I learned something about myself and I learned how to behave in the future.”
Easter said difficult situations end up improving our lives because when people live too comfortably they stay in a general state of discontent. Easter added that people do not feel alive when they feel too comfortable.
“I purposely put myself in situations with discomfort because I know I’m going to learn from them, grow from them, and become healthier,” Easter said.
During the thirty-three-day hunting trip, Easter said he struggled with maintaining power over discomfort.
“I had moments like this sucks. Why am I doing this? My legs hurt. My lungs hurt. I feel like I’ve been sunburned. I just want water,” Easter said.
However, Easter said that he does not regret anything in his life.
“I get home and every single time I’m like oh man. I’m really glad I did that,” Easter said. “I’ve become healthier and happier for it."
