Hi, my name is Melissa Urban, and you're listening to Do the Thing, a

podcast where we explore what's been missing every time you've tried to make a change and make it stick.

Last week I shared all the details of my cold shower experiment.

By the time you listen to this, I'll have taken an 8 minute long,

freezing cold shower every single day for more than four months. In that episode I mentioned a book that was

basically my cold therapy Bible written by Scott Carney. Scott is an investigative journalist anthrop, and the author of several books, including

what doesn't kill us and his new book, The Wedge.

Scott's thing is simple, due in large part to technology. We're too comfortable and it's

making a sick, weak, and fragile. Comfort is a good thing, don't get me wrong. It's

really nice to turn on the air conditioning on a summer

day or crank the heat in my car on a cold winter morning. But because comfort is marketed to us and so easy to achieve. We don't have enough variability in our lives.

And how we react to variability or contrast is really what drives us to growth.

We don't grow when we're comfortable. We grow when we're

uncomfortable. And it's introducing the right kinds and amounts of discomfort back into our lives

that helps us adapt and build that stress

resilience. And that's exactly what Scott wants us to explore. How can we

stretch those comfort zones, learn to adapt to challenging situations and come out stronger?

Here's how it works in real life. I've discovered that if you can be totally chill singing along to Ed Sheerin in a freezing cold shower,

you can handle anything your first-grader throws at you at breakfast.

Over the course of this episode, Scott is going to invite you into a few small changes you can make to your normal routine

To help you become more stress resilient in every area of your life

No, you're not gonna have to get rid of your couch, throw away your air conditioner, or cancel Netflix. He will give you plenty of ideas, however, for including variability into your routine.

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