8/12 Mental Toughness Thursday

Comfort Creep

by Coach Leslie 
Monday I introduced you to the book we're reading this month for GORUCK Tribe. The book, The Comfort Crisis, explores all the ways in which we allow ourselves to become complacent with comfort. One of the reasons I love CrossFit and rucking is that we learn how to be comfortable with being uncomfortable. According to Michael Easter, the author of The Comfort Crisis, we are hardwired to want "comfort creep," yet we need to continue to push the boundaries of uncomfortableness to be strong and healthy mentally, physically and spiritually. 
The Comfort Crisis introduced me to the concept of comfort creep, but the term has been floating around the personal finance world for quite some time. In that context comfort creep is what happens when we start to make more money and we spend more of our disposable income on things that make us comfortable but our unhappiness remains the same or decreases. Essentially our spending rises to reach a perceived better quality of life without delivering a permanent benefit to our wellbeing.
The same comfort creep is an insidious incremental increase of ease in our everyday lives with a commensurate decrease in our toughness. Easter describes it this way, "We sleep on the most comfortable mattress possible in our climate controlled home. We wake up and walk less than 20 feet to get into our climate controlled vehicles to work in another climate controlled building. Then we drive home to eat dinner that we didn't need to grow, forage or hunt. Then we sit on a comfortable sofa until it's time to go to sleep in our comfortable bed."
According to Easter the majority of us spend too much time in artificially controlled environments. A study sponsored by the Environmental Protection Agency found the average American spends 93% of his or her time indoors.
To escape comfort creep we are encouraged to do things that make us less comfortable like camping, backpacking, CrossFit, rucking, hiking, cycling, etc. The major theme for holding off comfort creep is spending time outdoors. Time outside exposes us to the elements, sun, wind, rain, snow, and allows us time and space to think, be creative, explore and do all manner of things that improve our mental and spiritual health. The Japanese call time outside shinrin-yoku or forest bathing and doctors regularly prescribe it to improve physical and mental health. 
We are lucky here in Montana as most of us live here precisely for the outdoor pursuits. We hunt, climb, hike, fish, float and spend time outdoors because we know it makes us feel better. Is there a way to turn your next outdoor adventure into a mini-misogi to explore the boundaries of your confomrt zone? Share your ideas with us in the comments.