How uncomfortable are you willing to get – to get what you want?
Are you willing to to push at your edges, stare fear in the face, take a HUGE leap of faith with no guarantees of success, and do whatever you can to make your dreams a reality?
If yes… you have the key to a life well lived.
You might know that I recently attended a pretty intense 10 day silent Vipassana meditation course – you can read more about that here. One of the key parts of the practice is to become highly observant of the ever-changing sensations in your body as you sit cross legged without moving for a minimum of one hour.
As you might imagine it can hurt like hell! – here’s something I wrote about the first time I did it 12 years ago when it felt like I’d been sitting on a spike for 9 days!
So why am I repeating myself?
In fact you may be wondering if I’m just a masochist, and why do I put myself through all that discomfort at all!
Well here’s the thing… life is always bringing us opportunities, but we are all so conditioned to stay in our comfort zones that when one comes along that might be our perfect next step towards what we most want for our lives, we don’t even give it a second glance.
If our unconscious mind senses that it will make us feel fear, pain or discomfort it will reject it as an option, often without us needing to make a conscious choice about it.
Every time you have a goal, dream or desire that you truly want to make happen, you have to step outside your comfort zone to get it.
You have to take a journey into the unknown – do something you’ve never done before, and when you do that your ego doesn’t like it because it doesn’t feel safe in some way.
Your ego’s defence is to trigger your fear, and with that your mind starts to fill with limiting thoughts that make you feel small, incapable, not good enough, like it’s an impossible dream, that you’re not worthy of receiving what you want, that you’re not worthy of receiving the support to help you get what you want… and so the mental commentary goes on.
A door to the stored collective memories of past pain gets opened where you may have failed, got rejected, got hurt, felt afraid, where you were worried, depressed or anxious, disappointed, sad or shamed…
It makes you feel that ‘that is who you are, and that it’s the truth’, which can be a huge barrier to get past.
And this is completely FALSE.
The ego operates by avoiding pain and craving pleasure. If your aversion to discomfort is so strong you will avoid feeling it and back off from pushing through your fears: And your dream stays unfulfilled.
If you give your power away to the ego and give in to the uncomfortable feelings, one day perhaps you will find the discomfort of having unfulfilled dreams feels worse than facing your fears. And you’ll have a chance at transformation. But you won’t enjoy the ride as much as if you’d consciously taken your fears on!
Fear is really an insubstantial phantom that gets built up in our minds. The truth is you are an unlimited being in a physical body, capable of transmitting your unique light out into the world and creating a life beyond your wildest imagination. But to do that you have to be willing to get uncomfortable. Be willing to move through your fears and claim your power back.
Vipassana helped me develop my resilience to discomfort because you experience the truth that all things are temporary. Nothing lasts – pleasure or pain – and it’s surprising how much you can really handle.
But you don’t have to go to the extremes that I did to develop your resilience. You just need to commit to following your heart, and watch for the opportunities that life will bring to you in order to practice it!
If you have a big dream it’s safe to say that you’re probably in for a bumpy ride! All the stories and beliefs you carry that are in the way of you receiving that dream will show up to test you – so you can clear them.
This is the tricky point!
It’s here that you’ll either react with avoidance to feeling the uncomfortable feelings, or you’ll stay focused on what you want, and run the gauntlet! It’s up to you to choose. And that’s why resilience really helps.
It’s as easy to see all our own stuff as it is to lick our own elbows. We’re just not made that way!
We need other people to show our hidden selves to us, to be our mirrors, our champions and to call us on our bullshit. Others can see our brilliance much better than we can because they don’t have our filters. If we try and do it all on our own we’ll never be conscious enough to make the different choices that we need to. And the old programmes that stop us getting what we want will continue.
So whatever you do PLEASE GET SOME SUPPORT!
Join a mentoring or accountability group, have some sessions with a therapist or healer, get some coaching, do some swaps to get the help you need, do some programmes, read self help books…
Do whatever you need to do to see your stuff and develop your resilience…
GET COMFORTABLE WITH BEING UNCOMFORTABLE…
And watch your dreams manifest!
If you found this blog lifted or inspired you, please leave a comment below, share it with your friends or drop me an email. I love hearing from you!
And if you’d like any help with clearing the blockages to what you most want to experience in life, why not jump on a call with me so we can discuss what would get you your greatest breakthroughs. contact me at connect@cathyballard.com
Much love,
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