When comfort kills.

"The foundation of all (mental) illness is the unwillingness to experience legitimate suffering." -Carl Jung

It struck me recently that not often does anyone experience becoming healthier in any area of their lives without experiencing a large degree of discomfort. The move towards greater health actually causes more discomfort initially before it gave any kind of relief.

Have you ever tried eating healthier? Begin a new workout regimen? Deal with past emotional trauma? What do all these things have in common? They are things we want to do in order to become the best versions of ourselves, but all inherently bring up a lot of discomfort.

BECOMING HEALTHIER REQUIRES US TO LEARN TO EMBRACE DISCOMFORT. WELCOME UNEASE. SIT WITH PAIN. We very naturally run away from, repress, deny, and do anything we can to get to immediate states of comfort. Pain causes us to be reactive, rather than thoughtful. We REACT, rather than CHOOSE a response. This results in having no control over our lives. Our daily actions are controlled by a need to relieve our pain and stay comfortable.

This is normal. Common. A perfectly human tendency.

This is also how clinging to comfort can kill us.

This is why we get addicted to things like:

Shopping.

(A convenient way to distract ourselves from boredom, all while calming our personal insecurities by owning super cute things.)

Porn.

(FREE, LEGAL, AND EASILY ACCESSIBLE DRUG. Brain scans show that the same areas which fire while watching pornography are the areas that fire while taking illicit drugs. Addicting as all get out.)

Potato chips.

(Like they say, once you pop, you can't stop.)

Facebook.

(30 likes or more, and I can start feeling valuable again.)

Being in control.

(This is universally one of the most common ways to control inner anxiety-- control the exterior world to feel less inner chaos.)

Fixing others.

(Focusing on YOUR PROBLEM is a convenient way to avoid taking responsibility for my own life and issues.)

Money.

(We think that if we spend our life energy to get enough of it, and we'll miraculously have no more issues to worry about. Problem is, that never actually happens.)

The irony of it is that the NEED to achieve immediate comfort leads us ever further into our own destruction. OUR ANTIDOTE FOR DISCOMFORT BECOMES OUR POISON.

In discovering this, I work to help others slowly learn to embrace pain as a part of life, sit with anger, befriend sadness and boredom, and walk forward WITH the fear they feel.

I call it "smiling at the devil".

What specifically and practically does it look like to practice sitting with discomfort on a daily basis?

Well, that is a blog post for another day. 

Grace and Peace,

Sarah