Good Stress: The Health Benefits of Doing Hard Things invites you to reframe your understanding of stress. Humans evolved with paleolithic stressors that conferred health and resilience. Increasingly, modern life has been engineered for ease and convenience — with a serious cost. We are sick!

Drawing on personal experience, ancient wisdom, and cutting-edge science, author Jeff Krasno reveals how embracing life’s challenges can realign us with our design. To that end, this book prescribes 10 specific evidence-based “good stress” protocols to transform your physiological, psychological, and social well-being.

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Good Stress: The Health Benefits of Doing Hard Things

This book invites you to reframe your understanding of stress. Drawing on personal experience, ancient wisdom, and cutting-edge science, author Jeff Krasno reveals how embracing life’s challenges can unlock health, resilience, and transformation. You’ll learn practical tools to turn stress into a force for growth, resilience, and transformation through ten proven protocols that will help you reclaim your vitality.

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“Good Stress distills all of my podcast conversations, ‘me-search’ and self-experimentation into a unique approach that unwinds the pathologies of chronic ease and brings us back into balance.” ~ Jeff

How to Pre-Order Good Stress and Claim Your Bonus Gifts

Unlock $900 in bonuses right now + instant access to Chapters 1 & 2 (including audio versions) + more secret bonuses to be announced soon. Scroll down for pre-order bonus info. 

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Unlock the healing power of adversity.

 

Read this book to learn more about:

  • The difference between GOOD stress & BAD stress.
  • Jeff's personal journey from health & wellness to wealth & hellness (and back).

  • How chronic ease results in chronic dis-ease — and what are some of the most prominent evolutionary mismatches making us ill. 

  • The bridge between mysticism & medicine: What the Buddha intuited about modern medicine 2,000 years before the invention of the microscope.

  • Jeff's protocol stack for burning fat.

  • Why the most astonishing benefit of fasting is NOT physiological.

  • How cold plunges train you for to the dentist.

  • The techniques and benefits of having hard conversations: The story of how Jeff had 28 Zoom calls with people who didn’t like him.

  • Living and dying with ease: How we cultivate freedom from the fear of death.

Get Exciting Pre-order Bonuses

Pre-order Bonus 1: Receive sneak peek early access to the Introduction, Chapter 1, and Chapter 2 of the book — text and audio. Start reading or listening right away.

Pre-order Bonus 2: Get immediate access to these Commune video courses with purchase — yours to keep!

Meet the Jeff Krasno

Five years ago, Jeff was suffering from insomnia, chronic fatigue, brain fog and “dad” bod. Then he discovered that, like 6 in 10 Americans, he had a chronic disease. He was diagnosed with diabetes.

This propelled a five-year quest into the source of his infirmities. This is what he discovered: Chronic disease is the result of chronic ease!

Jeff used the protocols in his new book, Good Stress, to reverse his diabetes, lose 60 pounds, and reclaim his health at age 50 – all because he embraced the healing benefits of adversity.

Inspired by conversations he had with over 300 medical experts and thought leaders, including Dr. Mark Hyman, Dr. Casey Means, Dr. Zach Bush, and others, Jeff wrote a book that empowers people to harness stress as a force for growth and reclaim their vitality – through ten particular protocols that provide ancient wisdom for modern well-being.

Jeff is the co-founder and CEO of Commune, an online video education platform for personal and societal well-being. He hosts the Commune podcast, interviewing a wide variety of luminaries from Deepak Chopra and Marianne Williamson to Matthew McConaughey and Dr. Gabor Maté.

He is also the co-creator of Wanderlust, a global series of wellness events. In 2016, he was selected by Oprah Winfrey to be part of the SuperSoul100 as one of the nation’s leading entrepreneurs. In 1995, Jeff married his college sweetheart, Schuyler Grant. They live in Los Angeles and have three daughters.

Meet Schuyler Grant

Schuyler Grant is the founder and co-director of Kula Yoga Project in NYC, the co-creator of Wanderlust, and co-owner/director of the Commune Topanga retreat center. Schuyler developed a unique and beloved style of alignment-based vinyasa called Kula Flow. The advanced teacher training she has led for over two decades has minted teachers and studio owners worldwide. She was also a creator of the 200- and 300-hour trainings for both Kula and Wanderlust. She is a regular contributor to the Commune platform, which hosts a dozen of her asana and breathwork courses. She is especially proud of Empowered Birth, a course she hosted and co-produced to support women’s journey through pregnancy, delivery, and postpartum.  

Schuyler opened the first Kula just two blocks north of Ground Zero in 2002, in an effort to help bring some heart and community back to Lower Manhattan. She is exceedingly proud that Kula is still going strong in SoHo and Williamsburg, Brooklyn. She now resides in Los Angeles, with her beloved Jeff Krasno, their three daughters, and four chickens. She leads regular retreats and trainings, and considers herself exceptionally lucky to still love vinyasa-style yoga—and the same man—after all these years.

Meet Schuyler Grant

Schuyler Grant is the founder and co-director of Kula Yoga Project in NYC, the co-creator of Wanderlust, and co-owner/director of the Commune Topanga retreat center. Schuyler developed a unique and beloved style of alignment-based vinyasa called Kula Flow. The advanced teacher training she has led for over two decades has minted teachers and studio owners worldwide. She was also a creator of the 200- and 300-hour trainings for both Kula and Wanderlust. She is a regular contributor to the Commune platform, which hosts a dozen of her asana and breathwork courses. She is especially proud of Empowered Birth, a course she hosted and co-produced to support women’s journey through pregnancy, delivery, and postpartum.  

Schuyler opened the first Kula just two blocks north of Ground Zero in 2002, in an effort to help bring some heart and community back to Lower Manhattan. She is exceedingly proud that Kula is still going strong in SoHo and Williamsburg, Brooklyn. She now resides in Los Angeles, with her beloved Jeff Krasno, their three daughters, and four chickens. She leads regular retreats and trainings, and considers herself exceptionally lucky to still love vinyasa-style yoga—and the same man—after all these years.

What Leading Health & Wellness Experts Are Saying...

This book beautifully weaves ancient teachings on impermanence and interconnection with practical protocols that challenge the body and mind, showing us that true growth comes from embracing life’s hard edges. It's a must-read for anyone ready to unlock the healing potential of 'good stress.”

~ Mark Hyman, MD
Co-Founder & Chief Medical Officer, Function Health and 15x NYT bestselling author

"This book is a profound reminder that facing our fears and moving through them can transform not only our personal lives, but also our collective journey toward a more unified and compassionate society."


~ 
Marianne Williamson
spiritual leader, former Presidential candidate, and 7x New York Times bestselling author

"Jeff Krasno is one of my favorite teachers and a truly wise guide for growth. Good Stress beautifully reveals that so many of our stressors become our strengths. The grounded wisdom and actionable strategies make this a must-read for true well-being."

~ Brendon Burchard
#1 New York Times Bestselling author of The Motivation Manifesto and High Performance Habits

"In Good Stress: The Health Benefits of Doing Hard Things, Jeff provides a clear, science-backed roadmap for reclaiming our natural vitality. This book is an essential guide for anyone looking to realign their lifestyle with how we’re truly wired, empowering us to harness the power of 'good stress' to become stronger, healthier, and more resilient."


~ Jillian Michaels
Weight loss expert

"This book is like an experiential orgy of insights, experiences, and the tapestry of life's journey and how to live it. I thought that over the past fifty years in the health and wellness field that I had "heard it all" until reading Jeff Krasno's masterpiece. This book not only takes you on a joyous trip but is stealthy capable of changing your perception of stress in making it your friend."

~ Jeffrey Bland, Ph.D., FACN
Founder, Institute for Functional Medicine

"This book beautifully weaves together practical insights with deep wisdom, drawing on the same protocols we both use—intermittent fasting, cold plunging, sauna, and resistance training. Jeff's journey from pre-diabetes to vibrant health is inspiring, and this book offers a roadmap for anyone looking to harness the power of 'good stress' to thrive."

~ Dr. Sara Gottfried
New York Times bestselling author and leading expert in functional medicine

"Jeff Krasno’s Good Stress is a groundbreaking guide that masterfully blends personal anecdotes, cutting-edge research, and practical protocols to help us reconnect with our biological roots. By adopting Krasno's deliberate short-term acute stress techniques, readers can unlock the evolutionary benefits that foster resilience and longevity. This transformative book is essential for anyone seeking to harness the power of "in-convenience" to achieve optimal health and well-being."

~ David Perlmutter, MD, FACN
Author, #1 New York Times bestseller, Grain Brain, and Drop Acid

"Jeff's evolution from entrepreneur to author and thought leader embodies the transformative potential within each of us. In Good Stress: The Health Benefits of Doing Hard Things, he adeptly merges mysticism with medicine, presenting deep revelations on how embracing discomfort can catalyze authentic growth and healing. Jeff's prose serves as a poignant reminder that genuine wellness emerges not from evading challenges, but from boldly embracing them with fortitude and inquisitiveness."

~ Gabrielle Bernstein
#1 New York Times bestselling author of The Universe Has Your Back

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Squeezing the Sponge

At the end of the end of the end of a road, nestled amid the undulating hills of the Santa Monica mountains, you will find Commune Topanga.

Actually, you will get very lost before you find it. The single-lane back roads will become progressively serpentine. You will drop all cellular service. Your heart rate will quicken at the precarity of the sheer cliffs dropping off the shoulder. You’ll question your instincts and ask yourself why you agreed to travel to a remote retreat with no Internet called Commune.

Surely, you’ve seen enough documentaries about communes that don’t end well.

For a brief moment, you will decelerate, maybe even pull over, and envision yourself kidnapped by a gaggle of naked hippies on acid. When this hesitancy inevitably occurs, you know you’re very close to your destination and, despite any lingering reticence, you press on.

Upon arriving, you may be met with a home-brewed kombucha or perhaps a tranche of warm seed bread. You settle into your rustic A-frame cabin—off the grid, but nicely appointed with potted succulents. Slowly, your anxiety level drops along with your shoulders. Welcome to Commune.

Commune Topanga is our 10-acre experiment in well-being: one part production facility, one part retreat center, one part sustainability lab.

There are meditation platforms perched above magical vistas, a crystal-laden yoga shala, glamping yurts, long communal dining tables, citrus and pomegranate groves, fourteen honeybee hives, a peep of ISA Brown chickens, and an incessant trickle of fascinating people—like Scotty.

Scotty is the erstwhile head of waste management at Burning Man. Never has a man more enamored with human fecal matter walked the earth. Scotty installed an array of solar-powered compostable toilets on the property. Every few weeks, we help the decomposition process by feeding the bowl microbes. The microbes alchemize human scat into a potent compost tea. I wouldn’t recommend it with milk and sugar, but the fruit trees love it.

Little do they know, but as recurring visitors savor their apple crisp, they are unwittingly eating their own shit.

Schuyler, my long-suffering better three-quarters, and I have been manifesting this vision for decades. But lest you think it’s paradise on earth, please know that septic is prone to backing up, ground squirrels often get to the lettuce before we do, and a bevy of bee stings once sent my Commune co-founder, Jake, into anaphylaxis. Be careful what you wish for.

I set this backdrop for it is on this land that I have hosted and interviewed (and dined, hiked, cold-plunged, and sauna-bathed with) hundreds of the world’s most prolific doctors, yogis, spiritualists, mystics, and sages. Yes, I have also played interlocutor in more prosaic settings on Zoom and in fluorescent-lit, dank-carpeted conference halls, but Topanga is where I have experienced the most profound moments of satori, absorbing the wisdom of so many diverse and facile minds in an environ that matches their singularity.

Over the past five years, since the launch of the Commune podcast, I have paddled a conversational canoe with spiritual teachers like Deepak Chopra, Marianne Williamson, and Sadhguru. I have probed the mental gladstones of functional and integrative medicine physicians like Mark Hyman, Sara Gottfried, Jeffrey Bland, Zach Bush, Casey Means, Kara Fitzgerald, David and Austin Perlmutter, Jolene Brighten, and Terry Wahls.

I’ve spoken with neuroscientists like Andrew Huberman and Adam Gazzaley, with nutritionists Elissa Goodman and Simon Hill, with environmentalists Paul Hawken, Warren Brush, Finian Makepeace, Ryland Engelhart, and Kate Nelson, and with trauma and addiction experts including Gabor Maté, Russell Brand, Hala Khouri, and David Kessler.

I’ve jawed and nattered with purveyors of every bespoke wellness modality, including Wim Hof, Byron Katie, Davidji, Tracee Stanley, Matteo Pistono, and Michael Beckwith, and with those who defy categorization, like Matthew McConaughey, Mickey Hart, Marie Forleo, Jim Kwik, Dave Asprey, and Rener and Ryron Gracie.

I could write another book about my madcap misadventures with these characters—but it would likely be my last.

In addition to interviewing living souls, I have spent hundreds of hours excavating the posthumous libraries of the British philosopher Alan Watts and the American spiritualist Ram Dass in collaboration with their estates. And, of course, I cohabitate with my Zen teacher and muse, Schuyler, whose iconoclasm serves me up daily koans over which to cogitate.

In preparation for the aforementioned interviews, I have read over 400 books, endless scientific papers, primary source data, and clinical research. If only out of vanity and risk of public embarrassment, I have committed myself to rigorous study, and, in doing so, I have become an “amateur everything,” from citizen microbiologist to part-time Buddhist.

For years, I have had the unique opportunity to absorb the insight of the world’s greatest minds. This book synthesizes and distills their wisdom into a guide for well-being—a coalescence of the ancient and the cutting edge. It is a squeezing of the sponge.

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