I'm sure I'm not the only person who dislikes being uncomfortable. It's...well...uncomfortable. Something feels off, unaligned, wrong. In the earlier stages of my journey, I ran from discomfort as fast and as hard as I could. I reached for anything I thought might restore my sense of comfort. I became a big fan of anything that produced what I described as "light switch happy." Getting away from discomfort felt imperative because I couldn't distinguish comfort from safety. I needed to be comfortable in order to feel safe.
Rejecting discomfort required me to abandon the now. It wasn't a safe place. This lack of anchorage to the present left me disconnected from my own life. I was too busy pressing rewind or fast forward to appreciate things as they happened, which just left me feeling more uncomfortable.
A huge part of my spiritual journey has been coming back to the now. It's such a powerful place. As Eckert Tolle explains, "“Life is now. There was never a time when your life was not now, nor will there ever be.”
Returning to the present moment has required me to learn how to live in discomfort. My previous efforts to avoid it proved what, at first, seemed a painful truth--there's nowhere else to run. To become truly devoted to the now, I had to look at discomfort from an entirely different angle. I had to accept it for what it always was--my soul's call. When I am uncomfortable, something within me is trying to get my attention. Just as a physical pain calls attention to an emerging ailment, my inner discomfort illuminates something that requires my attention, and ultimately, my action.
Once I recognized discomfort for what it was, it lost the ominous depth it once held. When I became willing to answer its call, my discomfort became an incredible tool. Now, it lights the path forward and guides me to the thing within me that is ready to be healed.
Changing my attitude, or angle of approach, to discomfort has also expanded significantly the compassion I am able to show myself when I become uncomfortable. When I first began returning to the now, I judged myself harshly for the discomfort that I experienced. Because being uncomfortable still felt unsafe, I mistakenly believed that I had erred in my journey. My discomfort was a sign that I had done something wrong. This approach blocked me from the real message. Instead of opening to the next step of my own healing, I became self-recriminating and afraid to go further within. Once I finally appreciated discomfort as my soul's call to action, I was able to recognize it as the opportunity it truly is.
I cannot heal what is never revealed. When I remember this, I am able to accept--and on the good days, even embrace--my discomfort. Like an old friend, it has come again to show me the way. The path forward may not be easy, but I am always better for having traveled it. I am more present and better able to live in the moment. I take aligned action. And I know peace.
Prayer: Let me be curious about my discomfort. Help me to see and accept what it has to show me so that I may answer my soul's call.
For more is always revealed.
XO,
Katy
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