I first heard about the book FEARVANA: The Revolutionary Science of How to Turn Fear into Health, Wealth, and Happiness by Akshay Nanavati on the Marathon Training Academy podcast “How to Use Suffering to Your Advantage as a Runner.” I was intrigued by the thought of using fear and suffering to my advantage and actually coming out stronger as a result. Runners often face fear (that first 20-mile run or your first race) and suffering (mile repeats or running in adverse weather) so learning to channel fear and suffering sounded like something I wanted to learn more about.
Nanavati is a Marine Corps Veteran who overcame drug and alcohol addiction, PTSD, and psychological problems that led him to contemplate suicide. He was able to not only overcome all of this but find a fulfilling life and start a nonprofit organization, The Fearvana Foundation. He is a runner and athlete and has a goal to run across every country in the world. In addition, he has accomplished some incredible feats such as climbing the Himalayas and trekking across an icecap in -40 degree temperatures.
I found this book to be a quick and easy read full of inspirational stories and quotes. Normally I hate a book that has inspirational stories but I found they worked well in this book and I actually liked them. Some of them I had heard before but I realize maybe not everyone has heard the story about how Michael Jordan (a hugely famous former basketball player) was cut from his high school basketball team.
Beyond the anecdotal stories, the book begins with scientific evidence on how your brain reacts to fear and how your body is effected. The book is divided into three sections and in the first section, we are introduced to the idea of having two brains, the animal brain and the human brain. The animal brain responds to survival needs while our human brain can help us process perceived fears. Having the two brains work together is the tricky part.
The second part of the book describes more deeply the idea of Fearvana and has training exercises to help the reader change their mindset. The third part of the book goes into the remembering self and the experiencing self and how our memories can shape our lives. Nanavati describes how to embrace suffering through something that you hope will result in a positive outcome- like training for a marathon and ultimately running and finishing that marathon.
Most importantly, Fearvana is about embracing your fears rather than trying to hide from them or ignore them. The term fearvana was coined by Nanavati by combining the words fear and nirvana. He believes that by using fear to our advantage, we can not only conquer our fears but reach a feeling of nirvana.
Another important subject Nanavati delves into is the realization that we are not defined by events that happened in our past and we can in fact change our memories. He gives some examples of some people who had tragic things happen to them in their childhood but yet they are living happy, peaceful lives as adults. These people realized that what happened to them does not define them as people, but rather their outlook on life and how they choose to live their life determines their happiness and well-being.
Bottom-line is I recommend reading this book regardless if you’re a runner or other athlete or not. I feel like this book is truly for everyone from all walks of life and all ages. Who wouldn’t want to be able to view fear as an asset and use it to your advantage?
You can buy FEARVANA: The Revolutionary Science of How to Turn Fear into Health, Wealth and Happiness on Amazon or do like I did and borrow it from a library. If your local library doesn’t have it, see if they can borrow it from another library (many public libraries do this now and yet most people aren’t aware of this wonderful offering).
Have you read this book or are you interested in reading it? Share your comments below.
Happy running!
Donna
runningtotravel 