USMC Vet, Speaker, Explorer and Author of Fearvana
Akshay Nanavati has overcome drug addiction, PTSD from fighting in Iraq with the Marines (where one of his jobs was to walk in front of vehicles to find bombs), depression and alcoholism that pushed him to the brink of suicide.
Since then, by embracing his demons, he has built a global business, run many ultramarathons, spent 17 days in darkness and isolation, spent 100 days alone dragging heavy sleds for over 1200 miles in the polar regions. Despite 4 biological defects including a blood disorder that 2 doctors told him would kill him in boot camp, he is now a sponsored athlete and most recently he pushed his body to the brink of death, spending 60 days alone in Antarctica dragging a 420 sled for 500 miles on what has been called “the boldest Antarctic expedition in modern times.”
Combining his life experience with years of research in neuroscience, psychology and spirituality, he wrote the book “Fearvana," about which the Dalai Lama said “Fearvana inspires us to look beyond our own agonizing experiences and find the positive side of our lives.” Now Akshay travels the world sharing the wisdom he has unearthed from the most extreme depths of solitude and suffering. He is on a mission to help our human family explore the edges and fall in love with both play and suffering in order to create a life of greater meaning, joy and fulfillment.