I was thinking about…

Embracing Discomfort’s Refining Fires

By Andy Lee

Ever feel paralyzed when the game suddenly changes? You were coasting through expected rhythms – then bam! A disruptive curveball scrambles your whole operating system into unfamiliar territory.

A new job. Relationship dynamic shifts. Unexpected health challenge. Sometimes it’s just an innocuous conversation veering unpredictably off script. But no matter the trigger, you get jolted from autopilot’s comfortable patterns into a wildly uncertain realm challenging mental wiring.

Fight or flight instincts slam on the brakes, don’t they? Regressing to the known comforts sounds so appealing whenever circumstances upend cozy homeostasis. Because tolerating that lingering limbo space tests our resolve like few other trials in life.

The human spirit understandably craves stabilizing sureties – relationships, routines, dynamics all synced to agreed-upon flows. Certainty allows channeling mental energies more constructively than bracing for potential sucker punches. So we instinctively resist any glitches to those matrices, shaking heads or clenching up emotionally against upheavals disrupting our perceived control.

But let’s be real – nothing genuinely worthwhile emerges from endlessly playing it safe. Eventually, the training wheels come off and skinned knees get traded for rewarding breakthroughs. A degree of discomfort sparking growth becomes inevitable, even necessary.

Which is why getting comfortable with persistent discomfort stands as an essential skill for flourishing in any arena – professional development, fitness, romantic relationships, creative pursuits and more. We don’t transcend old limits through complacency’s convenience. Discomfort, mindfully embraced, births unexpected personal evolutions.

As Romans 5:3-4 reminds: “Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.” The path toward hope involves enduring and persisting through refining fires intent on cultivating resilience within.

That’s why rather than recoiling from destabilizing forces disrupting your grooves, I’ve learned to lean into them as catalytic invitations toward deeper self-actualization. Get still, stay present, breathe into those pangs of instability instead of fleeing or fighting their persistent upheaval. Flow with the transitions life choreographs.

Because resisting only amps up anxieties into something harder than the original provocation. Choosing intentional presence during provocative interludes enacts a sort of masterful martial art – upheavals transform from intrusive forces into step-up growth specialists issuing rare evolution glimpses. Accept, acclimate and poise emerges sturdy even amid swirling chaos.

It takes diligence though, as our beliefs desperately cling to assumed constructs once providing purpose and identity. Yet life’s only permanent involves ceaseless reformation and deconstruction of limiting containers. Like an endless Jenga cycle, all falsely solid scaffolding eventually crumbles. We choose whether to clutch dying forms or dance the continuum as agility’s ultimate mastery.

Navigating disruptive plot twists doesn’t mean having all the answers – that’s simply being human, perpetually scaling uncomfortable learning curves. As Jesus modeled praying at Gethsemane: “My Father…not my will but yours be done.” (Matthew 26:39) Despite facing immense suffering, He embodied courageous submission to refinement’s purposes.

I’ve found that tuning into emotional adaptability during rocky interludes helps reframe apparent problems into passageways toward my next-level mindset. The grit, composure and expansive self-awareness compounded through flowing with disruptive energies? Those comprise the true achievement worth celebrating.

Stay open, stay curious, stay dynamically adapting! 🌺