How to stay well in the toughest of times; a case for resilience.

One of my favourite conversations on the podcast so far has been this one with Maziar Bahari. Maziar has an extraordinary CV which goes far beyond anything he has done professionally; his lived experience and many brushes with extreme danger and his sheer resilience in the face of it all is nothing short of inspiring.

In our modern quest for comfort, be that physical or mental/emotional, I fear that we have lost the skill of resilience. Now, don't get me wrong, I know that we know better than the older 'pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps' generation, who didn't always know how to best articulate and process difficult emotions, but could it be that we have sometimes leant to far the other way?

Convenience and physical comfort in our day-to-day lives has led us to seek increasingly more extreme physical activities and pursuits like ice baths and ultra marathons; are we trying to make up for a lack of feeling some necessary discomfort on a daily basis? Similarly, echo chambers on social media have destroyed our collective ability for nuanced discourse, which, I believe, is why we see so many melting down at the slightest challenge to our views in the online space.

In our conversation, Maziar; someone who has lived through more than 100 days in solitary confinement in a Tehran jail in 2009, broaches this topic beautifully. We discuss the ways in which people have lost their tolerance for discomfort and how we might go about restoring the balance. He shares some fascinating insights on this very topic with regards to how he is raising his teenage daughter.

Watch below, or listen to on Spotify.