Embrace Discomfort to Have More

Challenging ourselves is essential for spiritual, physical and emotional wellness.  If we stay in our routine, we become unconscious and stop evolving in our hearts and in our lives.  We become complacent, apathetic and unhappy.

Being willing to change, to try something new and challenge ourselves has less to do with where you go or what you do but more to do with getting out of your routine, what is familiar and comfortable.  Where we are may be comfortable and familiar even if it does not give us what we desire.  Seeking comfort gets in our way.

When our energy drops or nothing is moving, the answer is not to seek more comfort but to seek discomfort. Is that counterintuitive or just very intuitive?  When your energy is low and you can’t see what’s next, stop thinking and take on a challenge.  It could be a big challenge or a simple one depending how much you want to change your energy.

When we keep doing what we do and how we do it, our energy gets stuck in one spin pattern that repeats.  To have more of our energy we have to get out of that spin pattern.  So how do we do that?

Try something new, do something different, and get out of your comfort zone.  This has enormous impact on our energy. The more we stay where we are, doing what we do every day, the more unconscious we become to who we are.

Notice how you spend your time. Look at your routine.  Are you doing things that do not challenge you but just occupy your time?  Are you doing things that make you unconscious (lost in television, social media, searching the internet, etc.)?  Do you avoid change?

Can you step out of what is familiar and do something different maybe something that makes you uncomfortable. Discomfort means our energy is changing.  It is called a growth period.

It can be hard to experience uncertainty, doing something for which you don’t already know the outcome.  What keeps us from challenging ourselves to change?  Old invalidation  Fear.  The need to control.   Discomfort. Uncertainty.  The need to make things predictable, efficient and manageable. If our experiences are always the same then our energy stay the same and nothing changes.

Are you open to something new, that will change your energy, and your experience of yourself and your life? Change how you think about life. Adopt an adventure mind-set, embrace a hero’s journey, look for inspiration, be curious or experience self-expression.

When we change our energy, we change how we experience our life. If you want to feel better, to feel good about yourself, have the energy to create something new, to raise your vibration to joy or happiness or enthusiasm, then change your routine, take risks, try new things, challenge yourself.  Get out of your comfort zone and see what happens. Stop seeking comfort and seek the energy that brings joy.

See Life As A Whole

Working with business owners and professionals over the years, I learned an essential concept. To be happy meant to see life as a whole rather than just achieving goals. When we fixate on one aspect of our life, the rest of our life suffers. Frank focused all his attention on his business leaving little time for his young family. Tim was so fixated on his relationship that his career suffered. The examples go on. It does not have to be that way. At times, one aspect of our life requires more of our attention. That need does not have to steal energy from our life as a whole. 

Recognizing how often this happened, I changed my approach years ago from not focusing on goals but on life. I found that my clients achieved their goals but were not as happy as they imagined they would be. Achieving goals in and of themselves is not the answer. Having the life we desire is.

Our lives have many aspects. We have to be clear about each one of them individually and as part of a whole. We experience a different aspect of who we are in every part of our life.

When you look at your goals and your life, what do you see? What if I said forget about goals? How does that land with you? What if I asked, what is the life you desire? Would you know the answer right away?

Having a clear vision of the life we desire is the key to having every aspect of our life in sync and having it all.

We cannot think of our work or business as separate from our life. We cannot think about relationships and see them in competition with our need to be alone. We cannot think about our health as separate from our work.

We cannot see one aspect of our life getting in the way of another part of our life. Our life manifests through the thoughts or pictures we believe to be true. If we change our perspective and how we think, our reality changes.

Begin with meditation—quiet your body. Clear your thinking. In your mind’s eye, go within and imagine the life you desire. Imagine each aspect of your life fitting together. 

Release and let go of any thoughts that come to mind that argue with your vision. Please do not get lost in figuring out how to make it happen. Imagine the life you desire and include all aspects of your life, whether you have them now or not. See it all and see it as if it existed right now. Do not imagine it happening in the future. Experience enthusiasm for letting your life unfold in this way.

Once you have a clear vision, write it down, and commit to having it. Meditate on your vision often so that you always imagine yourself having this life – all of it.

Notice I did not tell you to create goals or plans. You can, but regardless, what you imagine is manifesting in your life. Allow your life to change. This may not be logical, but it is very intuitive.