Episode 167: The Physiologic and Psychologic Benefit of Doing Hard Things: Akshay Nanavati of Fearvana with Dr Mike T Nelson
Flex Diet Podcast
The Biggest Mistake in Mental Health
The singer-songwriter says we're taught that balance is a myth. She believes in the power of being unbalanced to find peace and inner strength. "When you seek it actively, you gain wisdom that a book cannot teach you"
Timestamps: Listen in to learn more about:
- [4:30] Akshay's recent Iceland expedition
- [6:50] How he keeps his mind from going in a downward spiral when things get hard
- [14:51] The duality of fear and nirvana
- [19:26] How Akshay spent 10 days in utter darkness
- [29:39] Learning to accept the unkowns
- [34:10] Akshay's thoughts on psychedlics to guide enlightenment
- [41:00] Developing a positive relationship with suffering
- [43:45] Progress and the development of new problems
- [45:59} Ways to suffer better
- [54:54] Praising effort not the result
- [1:00:27] The work lies in the day-to-day
- [1:03:06] Akshay's next adventure in Antartica
Connect with Akshay
Website: Fearvana
Instagram: @fearvana
Akshay's book: "Fearvana: The Revolutionary Science of How to Turn Fear Into Health, Wealth and Happiness."
About Akshay from Fearvana.com:
After moving to Austin, Texas from Bombay, Bangalore and Singapore, I overcame a lifestyle of drug addiction that killed two of my friends in high school. When I then decided to join the United States Marine Corps, two doctors told me that boot camp would kill me, thanks to a blood disorder I was born with. But I wasn’t about to let that stop me. Not only did I complete boot camp (with a twisted ankle, no less), but I was chosen as the honor graduate in Infantry school and went on to spend 7 months in Iraq where my job was to walk in front of our vehicle convoys to find explosives before they could destroy our vehicles.
That was just the beginning of my understanding of the positive power of fear and struggle. In 2012, I left a comfortable corporate job to drag a 190-pound sled 350-miles across the world’s second largest polar ice cap for a month. I’ve swam through underwater caves, almost been killed by a falling boulder while glacier caving, experienced severe altitude sickness while climbing in the Himalayas, and suffered through heat exhaustion while running across countries. But my greatest struggle came many years after the war. I was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and consequently struggled with depression and alcohol addiction that drove me to the brink of suicide. I then spent years studying neuroscience, psychology and spirituality to not only heal my own brain, but figure out what does it take to live a happy, succesful and meaningful life.
That is when I rejected the label of PTSD assigned to me and created a new one – Fearvana. I define Fearvana as the bliss that results from engaging our fears to pursue our own worthy struggle. I then wrote a book about the concept called “Fearvana: The Revolutionary Science of How to Turn Fear Into Health, Wealth and Happiness.”
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