Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom. Viktor E. Frankl
Building off of last week, let’s have a little chat about the urgency to act from energies that live in us. Emotions and sensations we experience in our bodies are so powerful and the things we’ll do in response to them is almost endless. Most of my work is about looking deeply at this phenomenon myself and also helping others gain the self knowledge to understand that as well.
Most of us have been slaves to our unconscious stimulation to drive away discomfort. Make the pain go away. We often want to feel numb and comfortable. We do this by eating, making ourselves busy, disconnecting, drinking, working out, the distractions are limitless. Some do this a lot, some do it very little but we all still do this at certain points. It’s all those masks and the deflections that keeps us from taking risks and changing.
The first thing I believe we need to do is to sit with the discomfort. This is an excellent place for meditation. In meditation we’re forced to just sit and chill. Nothing to do, nowhere to be, and no actions that can be done. In meditation we’re actually not behaving at all. And since behavior is a true measurement we get to see what happens when we don’t do anything.
The next thing to do is to act in spite of that discomfort. The discomfort is meant to drive us to choose, behave, and be a certain way. And if choosing, behaving, and being a certain way is broken we need to be able to get ourselves to do something different. Change=different. Different over a long period of time creates a new pattern. Or patterns are essentially what make us who we are.
The opportunity;
What time of day do you feel the most discomfort?
What is happening before you start to feel uncomfortable?
What do you normally do to feel comfortable?
What would you like to do instead?
Thanks for your time, have a great day.