I’m currently learning the power of being uncomfortable.
It’s been a hard year for us. It’s really crazy to think that when we celebrated the new year, we really had no idea what this year would hold, and we never could have guessed. This year has made us very uncomfortable, and I’m realizing that’s not always a bad thing.
This year I started doing 12/3/30, which is a treadmill workout that consists of 12% incline, at 3mph, for 30 minutes. It’s really hard and it actually kind of sucks. About 5 minutes into the workout, my heart rate starts to go up, and I start to breathe heavier. 10 minutes in I start to really sweat. 15 minutes in, I want to quit, I just want to sit down and catch my breath, my legs are tired, and I’m so over it. But if I can get past that point, to about 20 minutes in, everything kind of goes numb and I tell myself “well I’ve made it this far, I might as well finish”.
I used to try to distract myself with a podcast, music, scrolling on my phone, anything to take my mind off of it, and then count down the seconds until I was done. Just trying to get it over with with as little discomfort as possible.
But I'm realizing there's great benefit in being uncomfortable, and sitting in that discomfort, letting it happen to you rather than resisting, because it’s in that place of discomfort that you build endurance and strength.
It’s the same in life. When we go through seasons that are uncomfortable and challenge us, naturally we just want to find the quickest way out. We think “okay, how can I get our of this trial as fast as possible?” We want quick relief.
But what if we stopped resisting?
What if we let the discomfort happen, welcomed it even, and then let it pass in its time?
I always think of natural birth, when the contraction comes we don’t resist, we let the wave wash over and then pass away. Because the pain happens in the resistance.
So in life, when we face hard times and trials, what if we stopped resisting the discomfort, because with the resistance comes more pain and fear, and what if we let it wash over us and pass away in it’s time. What if we looked inward to see what that situation is teaching us?
We come out the other side stronger, with more endurance for the next time.
