Creating Ease in the Uncertainty

"Stress comes from
wishing that things were different than they
actually are."

~Oprah Winfrey
(paraphrased from Eckart Tolle's book: A New Earth)

Happy Summer Solstice!  

We have just passed through a potent portal honoring the start of Summer coupled with a New Moon at the exact moment of a powerful Solar Eclipse (2nd Eclipse in a series of 3!).  There is no doubt that we are all feeling the magnitude of these events and our systems are working on overtime to recalibrate, reset, and reorganize.

This is a necessary process and is providing the collective with the possiblity to look closer at ourselves, our individual paths, and our interconnectedness.  

To say that these times are uncomfortable is an understatement.  
 
At every turn we are being faced with yet another jarring unfolding in midst of overwhelming and disruptive uncertainty.  
 
Discomfort is the new norm as we collectively navigate these grueling times of upheaval.  
 
I have been thinking a lot about the notion of becoming comfortable in the discomfort of life right now. Of cultivating and finding ease within during the uncertainty of our human existence. 

This is truly at the heart of any addiction recovery as it removes that which is providing comfort (even if it is false comfort) and is providing one with the space to sit with themselves and tap into some semblance of ease in the discomfort of living a human life.

To choose to resist dipping into our "normal" ways of comforting ourselves when things feel challenging and uncomfortable and to learn to just let things BE as they are without needing to do anything is an exploration and a path of learning.  Not an easy one to walk! 
 
In so many ways we are all in a recovery process around addictions to creature comforts of varying degrees as this time of COVID has stripped us of many of our day-to-day conveniences, which we very well may be realizing now, were addictions.  

Addictions to such things as travel, live music (guilty!!), people that we can no longer spend time with, social interactions and gatherings, readily accessible foods, dining indoors at restaurants and coffee shops....the list is truly endless. 

None of these are "bad" per se, yet the removal of them has potentially dropped us all down into ourselves and our ways of coping in ways that we may not have experienced before.  It has magnified our habitual ways of moving through life. 

There is no judgment here and only room for compassion as we collectively navigate, unwind, and look deeper into our own ingrained patterns of living, being, relating, consuming, and operating. 
 
For many, myself included, this leaves moments of flailing – of unrest - of searching – of longing – of wanting to jump out of our skin.  If you find yourself in this space on occasion right now, please know that you are not alone. Everyone is trying to find their way during this madness and it is certainly not always pretty.  
 
What I know to be true is that we are being given tremendous fortuity here to reset our patterns of living and being.  While doing so, we must learn to find comfort in the discomfort. Learning being the operative word as this is a practice, an un-learning of sorts, and a re-training of the body, the heart, the mind, and the whole of our being.  
 
Change is uncomfortable – sometimes even excruciatingly uncomfortable – yet, is so necessary to evolve as humans.

These times have provided us all with an overwhelming feeling of uncertainty and are continuously offering us the perspective that we must remain in the present moment.

Some questions to ponder and journal about:  
 

• Where in your life currently are you facing those walls of discomfort? 

• Where do you feel the need to change, shift, grow?  

• What can you do on a moment-by-moment basis to sit with the discomfort of life so as to open up to new possibilities with yourself and in your life on the whole? 

• How can you surrender even deeper into this process of mayhem that we are navigating and cultivate a deeper level of compassion for yourself and those around you?

We cannot remain stuck in our ways of operating any longer.  

The Universe/the Divine/Spirit, whatever you may call that power larger than us, has made that quite clear.   

Learning how to breathe into the discomfort without reacting in attempts to find some comfort is the work.  

And, it is a lifelong journey.
 
No matter how long we have been walking this path, how much work we have done on ourselves, how many retreats/workshops/classes we may have taken and books we may have read, this time is a whole new realm for everyone. 

It is an opportunity to work with a deeper layer of our psyche, our recovery, our life, our state of being, our interactions, our use of resources, our moment-by-moment choices, our communications, and our connections.
 
This is a time like no other.
 
May each moment of each day be a reminder to surrender, to breathe into the discomfort, to take excellent care of one’s body and heart, and hold the whole in light and with endless compassion.
 
We are all in this together.