![\"\"](\"https:\/\/bestratefinders.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/run_away-300x180-1.gif\")
<\/p>\nI\u2019ve been trying to do a few things differently in 2025.<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n
Specifically, moving towards moments or things that make me uncomfortable.<\/p>\n
(I don\u2019t mean \u201ctimes when I am in physical danger,\u201d of course.)<\/p>\n
But rather, I\u2019m going to run toward<\/i> the things that my brain tells me, \u201cThis is uncomfortable, I don\u2019t like this, avoid it at all costs.\u201d<\/p>\n
The email I\u2019m afraid to open. The conversation I\u2019m afraid to have. The question I\u2019m afraid to ask. The ability to be alone with my thoughts (yikes).<\/p>\n
When I reach for my phone or Netflix or Playstation controller to avoid being bored or uncomfortable or sad or guilty\u2026<\/p>\n
I\u2019m trying to build some discipline to pause first.<\/p>\n
To not avoid, distract, or entertain myself away from what\u2019s really happening.<\/p>\n
To not zone out or run away, Monty-Python<\/i> style.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
If I have the courage to sit there and really ask the question, \u201cWhy is this making me feel uncomfortable?\u201d there\u2019s valuable lessons to be learned.<\/p>\n
Author Pema Chodron lays out the following in her book<\/b> When Things Fall Apart<\/i><\/a>:<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span>\u201cWe regard discomfort in any form as bad news.<\/p>\n <\/span>\u2026feelings like disappointment, embarrassment, irritation, resentment, anger, jealousy, and fear.\u200b<\/p>\n <\/span><\/span>Instead of being bad news, these are actually very clear moments that teach us where it is that we\u2019re holding back<\/b>.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n These things can be incredible teachers if we give ourselves the space to learn.<\/p>\n But that\u2019s quite the ask in 2025:<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n Thanks to the internet and our phones and same-day delivery, we can spend every minute of every day hiding from nearly every single uncomfortable feeling in our lives. We never have to be bored, we never have to feel \u201cbad,\u201d we never have to address the elephant in the room.<\/p>\n We can just swipe, click, tap, or disassociate to avoid any and all \u201cbad\u201d feelings.<\/p>\n We can hide from them with endless entertainment and comfort (even if it keeps us from getting what we really want).<\/p>\n Of course, those bad feelings don\u2019t go away\u2014they\u2019re still there, and the things we\u2019re avoiding will eventually need to be dealt with.<\/p>\n When I try to hide from discomfort, I know I\u2019m not actually avoiding it. I\u2019m not keeping it boxed up.<\/p>\n I\u2019m trapped in Pandora\u2019s Box with the monsters<\/a>.<\/p>\n Blaise Pascal, a 17th-century philosopher, said it best:<\/p>\n <\/span>\u201cAll of humanity\u2019s problems stem from man\u2019s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Many feelings of discomfort are screaming to teach us something if we can reframe how we feel about them.<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n As Chodron points out:<\/p>\n <\/span>\u201cThey\u2019re like messengers that show us, with terrifying clarity, exactly where we\u2019re stuck<\/b><\/span>.<\/p>\n <\/span>This very moment is the perfect teacher, and, lucky for us, it\u2019s with us wherever we are.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Life has a way of making that quiet, uncomfortable feeling<\/a> get louder and louder until we can\u2019t help but address it\u2026<\/p>\n But we can save ourselves quite a bit of time if we recognize the fear, lean in sooner, and recognize life is trying to teach us something.<\/p>\n That\u2019s my challenge for you this week.<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n What if\u2026<\/p>\n We let ourselves be bored<\/a>?<\/p>\n We asked, \u201cAm I really<\/i> hungry, or am I just soothing myself with food?\u201d<\/p>\n We acknowledged we were scared or anxious or nervous and then asked (with compassionate curiosity) what was behind the feeling?<\/p>\n Life is trying to teach us lessons every day.<\/p>\n We just have to be courageous enough to be uncomfortable to see it.<\/p>\n -Steve<\/b><\/p>\n The post The courage to listen to the lesson life is teaching you?<\/a> first appeared on Nerd Fitness<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I\u2019ve been trying to do a few things differently in 2025. Specifically, moving towards moments or things that make me uncomfortable. (I don\u2019t mean \u201ctimes when I am in physical danger,\u201d of course.) But rather, I\u2019m going to run toward the things that my brain tells me, \u201cThis is uncomfortable, I don\u2019t like this, avoid…\n
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These Feelings are Trying to Teach Us!<\/b><\/b><\/h2>\n
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\nThe post The courage to listen to the lesson life is teaching you? first appeared on Nerd Fitness.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":108523,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":""},"categories":[20,1,21,22,19],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bestratefinders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108521"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bestratefinders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bestratefinders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bestratefinders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bestratefinders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108521"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/bestratefinders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108521\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":108528,"href":"https:\/\/bestratefinders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108521\/revisions\/108528"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bestratefinders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bestratefinders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bestratefinders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bestratefinders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}