Moving Through Fear’s Allure to Find Inner Peace

Akshay Nanavati’s story of perseverance includes overcoming drug addiction, alcoholism that pushed him to the brink of suicide, depression and PTSD from fighting in Iraq with the U.S. Marines.

“That’s when I fell in love with the experience of adversity and the struggle because boot camp was terrifying,” Akshay says. “Everything about [it] was terrifying but it was so alluring that I started to look for other ways to confront myself—ultimately to go to war with myself.” He believes that the path to inner peace is the pursuit of a worthy inner war.

He went on to build a global business, run ultramarathons, conduct humanitarian work in post-conflict zones, and explore some of the most hostile environments on the planet—from mountains to caves to polar icecaps. “Nature became my playground to explore my fears and ultimately systematically push through them one inch at a time.”

“I craved a high I believed I could only get by living on the edge of life and death,” he says in his book, “Fearvana: The Revolutionary Science of How to Turn Fear Into Health, Wealth and Happiness.” 

He’s also spent years extensively researching neuroscience, psychology and spirituality. He combined his life experience with that research to write “Fearvana” and infused it with ways to transform fear, and its counterparts stress and anxiety, into something much more positive. His Holiness the Dalai Lama wrote in the book’s foreword, “Fearvana inspires us to look beyond our own agonizing experiences and find the positive side of our lives.”

Akshay now teaches people how to overcome their own fears and how to tap into their brain’s superpower—neuroplasticity.