What if I sit with discomfort a little bit longer?

Reflections on how I navigate unexpected changes

Mar 26, 2024

It’s a gloomy morning, and I just finished my yin-yoga class. Nothing makes me sit with discomfort more than holding long yoga poses; I start to think how uncomfortable this feels, and my breath goes faster. I know it will go away; I just need to hold a little bit longer. It is almost over; the 3 minutes in the pigeon pose passed, the discomfort is gone, and inside, I feel at peace.

Sometimes, we invite change; other times; life does it for us.

I feel the first one is like a yin-yoga class; I’m there because I want to. I invite changes and transformations into my life and put myself in situations that feel big and uncomfortable so I can grow, “We grow by doing things we are unqualified for,” and that helps me navigate them better with more patience and ease. For the second, when life proposes, it is not a choice and all I want to do is run.

What if I sit with the discomfort a little bit longer?

What is it trying to teach me?

What I’m not seeing?

I might be looking for freedom in places that are not within. And if I continue running, will I ever be free?

January and February were months full of life proposals and I’m still learning how to navigate them, so these are 10 THINGS I KNOW TO BE TRUE TODAY about discomfort and that I carry with me as a reminder whenever life proposes.

When all you have done in your life is running, stay. Running away from discomfort hasn’t got me anywhere, other than away from myself. Sitting with what I’m feeling is the only way to find closure. Maybe by staying, I will learn things I haven’t had the patience to learn yet, the things you learn when you take the time, when you are not jumping from side to side.
With every discomfort lies a great opportunity for transformation. It takes courage to stay and face our pain, listen to what is telling us, and where it is guiding us. It hurts because it needs healing.
Allow space for nuance in uncertainty is where patience is built.
Everything that happens unexpectedly is asking me to surrender, inviting me to fully experience the discomfort and release the idea of control because it is an illusion. All I can do is lie down and be water - cleansing, flowing, and feeling. And like a wave, turning every seat back into a starting point.
When a part of me feels trapped and powerless, remember that my power does not come from changing a situation that is not in my power to change. My power comes from within, from how I experience life, live, and create. The situations that happened to me do not take my power away; my power comes from how I navigate them.

Not all situations allow a quick exit, not everything is as easy as ripping off a band-aid; some are an invitation for a slow closure, a closure that hasn’t happened because maybe I still have something to learn there. Slow closure also means closing chapters with gratitude, reminding me that in one moment, I wanted this with all my heart, and just because it changed doesn’t mean it takes all the good things it gave me.
While I’m in this in-between phase, building bridges, how can I make the best of where I am? How can I make this a good place while I’m transitioning? Appreciate what this opportunity can still offer me.
All I have to do is trust. Trust that I’m here now but won't be here forever.
Feeling uncomfortable is creating a new vessel, a new capacity for my nervous system to expand.
To be calm is not to stop feeling discomfort, fear, or uncertainty but to learn to make peace with it. Accepting when emotions and circumstances that I do not like arrive and navigate them with consciousness. Finding calm in chaos comes by flowing and not forcing.

Discomfort has always brought me gifts even though it's hard to navigate at first. It has moved me to more aligned places. As Steve Jobs said, you can only connect the dots by looking backward. So, you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.

The only constant in nature is change, and it comes with discomfort, but like in yin-yoga, if we stay, we can expand our inner self.

Has there been a time that something rocked your world that didn’t end up, eventually, being a good thing? Or has it, in some way or another, moved you to more aligned places, people, and situations? Would love to know.

Sacred Vessel

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