“To venture causes anxiety, but not to venture is to lose one’s self.”
—Soren Kierkegaard
The desire for comfort and for predictability is real for many of us—it warrants no judgment; instead, it deserves to be acknowledged. But once we start paying attention– we may notice that the desire for comfort limits our ability to try new things in life. Sometimes, it even holds us back emotionally because we believe that somehow, our life should be different.
By simply paying attention to our true feelings rather than judging them, we learn to step out of the need for constant comfort, and to simply FEEL discomfort rather than avoiding it. By just letting discomfort be, we may discover a new self, new ways to grow. Instead of thinking, “Why do I feel so crappy?” we might say, “I feel crappy today. So be it.” There is a freedom to be had, if we let ourselves be uncomfortable–in owning up to how we really feel in each moment.
“A warrior accepts,” writes Pema Chodron in Comfortable with Uncertainty, “that we can never know what will happen to us next. We can try to control the uncontrollable by looking for security and predictability, always hoping to be comfortable and safe. But the truth is that we can never avoid uncertainty. This not-knowing is part of the adventure. It’s also what makes us afraid.”
