Embrace Discomfort Rather Than Fear

There is a difference between being stuck in discomfort when leading with our intuition versus when we’re stuck in fear and letting illusions get the best of us. Just for today, ask yourself are you having a moment of Discomfort or are you stuck in fear? The difference is real. Then hop back into the flow of your intuition.

Transcript

In this episode,

I'll be talking about what it feels like when I'm stuck in the discomfort with my intuition versus when I'm stuck in fear and letting illusions get the best of me.

Stay tuned.

Greetings and welcome back to shift today with Allison.

That's me,

Allison Chuhozzi.

Glad to have you back.

It's glad to be back.

It's kind of like this summer.

I've been taking breaks.

But that's what life is when you have small kids and life happens,

Right?

Okay,

So in this episode,

We are talking about what it feels like.

And I'm going to be using a lot of examples that I have.

So that's why I'm saying when I am stuck in the discomfort with my intuition versus when I'm stuck in fear and letting illusions get the best of me,

Because I think we all do this sometimes,

Right?

So let's go ahead and jump in.

So I'm going to begin by sharing some simple examples of what it feels like to listen to our intuition.

And these are examples that are ones that I believe everyone can relate to.

Because that's the number one thing when I'm talking with my clients is it's like,

What does it feel like to listen to your intuition?

And so here are some very simple examples I use.

And I think I think you'll be able to relate to these.

So here we go.

What do you do when something is too hot,

And is physically burning you?

Right?

So if something is too hot?

Well,

The answer seems simple,

We pull away,

Or we'll put on like a potholder to pull something out of the oven,

Right?

Well,

Recently,

I was taking a dish of baked rice out of the oven,

And I dropped it and I burned myself,

Which is super uncomfortable,

Realizing that I needed to slow down.

So this was me leading with kind of like my ego of I got to get this done,

This needs to happen.

And before that happened,

I stopped,

Something was telling me to stop and get some help because I'm having a physical back issue right now.

And bending over is not the easiest thing for me to do.

And I thought,

You know what,

Everyone else is busy,

I can do this.

It's a simple thing of baked rice,

I can just grab it myself.

And what happened is I dropped it,

Something in my head was telling me not to grab it.

But I did it anyway,

And I'm getting two burns on my arm.

But you know,

Slow down,

Right?

That's what I need to do.

I need to listen.

So this was me not listening.

I heard it,

I heard the voice in my mind.

And I pushed it to the side and I didn't listen.

So what happened?

I got burned.

Here's another example.

Do you put on sunscreen for protection from sunburn?

Now,

Don't get me wrong.

I love me some vitamin D.

I love to be out in the sunshine,

Especially now this is summertime.

But if we get a little too much of it,

It can really cause some major discomfort.

So what happens if you don't put on the sunscreen and you're in the sun for an extended period of time,

You're gonna get burned,

Right?

You might get burned,

You might get severely burned.

And it can be so severe that then you have to live with the discomfort while your skin heals.

And then it really can cause some future issues for your skin.

So why aren't we listening?

We know these things are going to happen.

Now,

Have you ever experienced one of these examples?

Maybe being burned by the oven,

A hot pot,

Scalding water,

Sunburn,

Curling iron.

Oh,

Gosh,

Have you ever walked across hat pavement?

Oh,

That's awful.

How about coffee?

The coffee tea burn in your mouth?

That's terrible.

Those are terrible examples.

But it happens.

And I use these examples because this is how our body and intuition work together to keep us safe.

If we're not paying attention and gaining that wisdom,

And instead of leading with our ego,

We can do it,

We can do it,

We're fearless,

This can happen.

And then boom,

We get burned,

Right?

And then we're stuck in the discomfort.

And then which could lead to fear of not wanting to do something in the future?

Well,

When we get physically burned,

We gain the hopefully we gain the knowledge to protect ourselves in the future.

And this knowledge then activates our wisdom of the process we need to take to avoid getting burned in the future.

Does this mean we won't get burned?

Unfortunately,

Not always.

But if we stay present and listen to our intuition,

Then we'll stay in the flow of the wisdom we've attained.

So guess what we all are going to get burned.

It happens.

This is life,

Right?

We get busy.

So here's a few other examples.

When our body tells you that it's hungry,

What do we do?

If we're living with intention,

And listening to our intuition?

Well,

Hopefully we're nourishing it in a healthy way so we can stay strong,

Right?

Suppose we're stuck in our ego and leading with all these expectations that swirl around us in this world of beauty.

In this case,

We're possibly starving ourselves so we can fit into a certain mold.

Or on the flip side,

We're loading ourselves up with a bunch of unhealthy processed food,

For instance,

Gratification.

And that's life,

Right?

We're moderation here is fantastic.

But if we're not living to nourish ourselves,

Then we're hurting ourselves.

Alright,

So here's another super simple example.

When you're when our bodies are telling us that we have to go to the bathroom,

The healthy choices to go and not hold it,

Because holding it too long can be unhealthy.

Plus,

Something disgusting might happen,

Right?

But what do we do to our children in this uncomfortable situation?

Right?

We tell them to hold it,

Don't we?

Because it's typically happens at the most inconvenient time and they're like,

Oh my god,

I gotta go to the bathroom.

I gotta we're stuck somewhere.

We're in the car.

We're at a store,

Especially,

You know,

Not everyone is a parent.

And I understand that.

But I remember when our kids were really small.

It was always at the worst possible time that they had we had to run to the bathroom.

We had to stop somewhere.

It wasn't always easy.

Luckily,

I have boys so it makes it a little bit more easier for me.

But it was not always convenient.

It's like,

Oh my god,

Why didn't you just go when I told you to go?

Or,

You know,

This is like the worst time I'm on a deadline.

I've got to get somewhere,

Right?

And it's really hard when we're thrown off cars by these moments.

But these are also the moments that get us to pause and pay attention to see what's happening in our surroundings and to make sure that we are present.

And we are teaching our kids to stay present too and healthy.

So living with intention and flowing with our intuition isn't rainbows and butterflies and perfect waves or perfect golf shot.

It's life.

But if we're doing our best to stay in the flow,

Then yes,

We'll be able to recognize the beauty in the moment and embrace the wisdom of the discomfort.

There are moments that are going to pause us for a reason.

They I know it's it's uncomfortable to even think about what might be.

But intuition and discomfort are part of the same family,

While fear and expectations are part of a different cluster.

So let's start with discomfort.

Discomfort equals being annoyed,

Basically being uncomfortable or uneasy.

And there are many emotions,

Circumstances and life moments that create discomfort.

By embracing discomfort,

We are allowing ourselves to do many things such as feel what grief feels like,

Feel anxiety,

Feel scared to be happy,

Even sometimes feel overwhelmed.

Feel the energy from others.

And this is where the empath lives daily.

I know I do,

I can feel what others feel.

Feel love and feeling love can be uncomfortable sometimes.

Feeling of letting someone go who has been in our lives forever.

And I'm not saying necessarily in a death way,

But in an end of a relationship way.

The feeling of joy,

Feeling of concern,

Irritation,

Being haunted,

Peeved,

Embarrassed,

Flustered,

Mortified.

There's so many feelings out there,

Right?

Positive,

Negative,

Neutral,

So many.

But remember,

Feelings are just that their feelings they're not a place to reside.

So I view discomfort as a wake up call to what I need to be paying attention to.

And there is a nugget of wisdom and a range of wisdom waiting to be uncovered,

That I'm ready to experience,

Learn,

Engage with and soak in.

And on the flip side is a thing called fear.

An unpleasant,

Often strong emotion caused by the anticipation of danger,

A state of being marked by feelings.

And these feelings of fear are ones where people get stuck in and they stay.

It's like they live in this fear,

They reside in it,

It becomes a place to live.

So now,

By embracing fear,

You're opening up your mind,

Body and spirit to lead the anxiety of illusion of the danger and the lack of living your life,

Which means you are staying in this place and you're getting stuck there.

And some might be afraid of that statement,

Which I understand that.

But if you allow yourself to pause and listen to a little voice inside telling you something that might sound silly or unreasonable or strange,

Then you might find out how to hop into the flow of living an intentional life rather than an expectational life.

I don't know if expectation was a word or if I just made that up.

But anyway,

I'm not saying fear isn't a real thing because it is and we need to be mindful of the difference of fear fueled by illusion,

Meaning being terrified of what might happen versus the discomfort of reality.

All right,

Here's more example time,

Example time.

I love giving examples.

I feel like I learn from stories from others and examples of others.

And that's why I like to teach this way.

So these are recent examples.

And I'd like to share with you when fear of others was met with my discomfort,

And how I navigated these situations.

So recently,

We had a major trip,

We went to Michigan,

A big road trip.

And we were packing up for this trip we are getting there was a lot of anticipation around this trip because we were going to Michigan for a major celebration first time coming together as a family for my stepson's wedding.

And you know,

There's so much anxiety around these relationships.

And just the whole process of a new marriage,

Right?

I mean,

It's a very exciting time.

Lots of personalities involved.

Just history involved,

The anticipation of what could happen,

Just,

You know,

Joy,

Just so many things right around this.

And we each as individuals have our own feelings around these and just the prep of getting ready for something like this is is exciting.

Yet there is a lot that goes around it right so many different flows of vibrations.

Well,

My husband was amazing,

Because I'm having a back issue and he packed the clean the car pack the car my kids helped do that too.

And we were getting ready to head out,

You know,

We had a set time we wanted to leave by seven in the morning and just to get ahead of some traffic and it's cooler in the morning to drive to.

And so my husband was closing out the house and I'm like,

All right,

I'm just gonna pull the car out and start letting it cool off and you know,

So we can get going.

So I go out to the start the car,

The boys,

Our boys are in the back.

And I go to start it and it's like,

And it's not gonna start the car is not wanting to start.

I mean,

It sounds like it wants to start but it's not starting.

I'm like,

Oh,

Boy,

What's gonna happen here?

And I'm like,

All right,

Well,

Overwhelming.

I had this sense of something is trying to pause us not it's not bad.

It's just we're not supposed to leave at this time for some reason.

Like,

All right,

Well,

How am I gonna explain this to my husband who I could feel his anxiety about just getting on the road and getting gone and getting there and you know,

All that.

So I go back in the house.

I'm like,

All right,

Just wanna let you know we're having a little problem.

The car is not starting.

And you know,

The f bombs fly and and so I'm like,

Well,

Just back your car out.

Let's try to jump the car and just see if we can get it started.

So we're jumping the car and it's not starting and it's not starting and I'm confused because I just headed in the shop to have it checked out because we're taking this long road trip and I want to make sure everything's you know,

Working fine and and it's not starting it is not starting it is not like I'm just gonna run inside and call the dealership and see if they can bring someone out real quick and and check it out or whatever because this has been like 20 minutes of 20-25 minutes have gone by and it's not starting.

So I'm in the house making a phone call.

My husband's outside dropping the f bombs just freaking out trying to figure this thing out.

I'm staying very calm because I know I just have this feeling there is a reason that we are paused.

It's it's not a bad reason.

It's just there is a reason something is holding us back.

So I'm on the phone with the guy from the dealership and all of a sudden I can hear the car start and I'm like,

Oh my god,

Thanks,

But he got it started.

I'm not sure what happened.

I'm like,

All right,

Well,

I guess we're good to go.

And so everyone calms down and we start driving and I'm not kidding you.

We're not five minutes up the road and there is a horrible car accident.

Poles are down like it's terrible horrible horrible car accident.

If we would have left when we did I truly believe we probably would have been in that accident.

So something was holding us back.

Something was keeping us in that discomfort.

My husband was definitely stuck in fear of the car not starting.

I was like,

Something's just holding us back.

I was like,

Oh,

I'm gonna have to go.

Something's just holding us back.

So this is when we have fear meeting the discomfort and I stayed in my flow.

I stayed in my patient calm energy to get me through that moment so that I didn't go into f-bomb mode,

Which is what I typically call it because I do.

Every once in a while I get frustrated and anxiety hits especially when I'm tired and I'm,

You know,

In this weird flow.

So it happens.

It happens to all of us and it's gonna happen but as long as we can hop back into the flow then we can keep moving.

So that's one example,

Right?

Here's another example.

This is a silly one.

Before we left the weather here in Little Rock,

I'm in Little Rock,

Arkansas and we have had this weird summer where some days are so beautiful like I can leave the doors open.

It's gorgeous.

It's just been,

We've had these beautiful moments and I thought,

God,

You know,

I really want to leave the door open but,

You know,

You got bugs and I don't want the flies in the house and like there's like fly season here in Little Rock and like,

You know what,

But it's so nice.

I really would rather have some nice flow through the house.

So I did leave one door open then the dog can come in and out and we did.

We got this like family of flies that moved in and it was really annoying but it was funny because some members of my family get so angry over the flies and I'm like,

I'll just take them out with the towel and get a fly sweater,

Whatever,

You know,

It doesn't bother me because I would rather have that airflow in my house.

So it's just funny how just a simple little nagging fly can drive some people insane where I'm like,

Eh,

It's a nag but it's not the end of the world.

So connecting,

Here's another one,

Connecting to your physical pain and listening to your body versus being told what is wrong with you.

I am a huge fan of connecting with the body.

I have had many,

Many medical issues over my 50 years and I do believe that I know my physical pain is tied to a lot of emotion and I have built up a lot of emotions in my body which have broke down things in my body but I also,

It's not that I can necessarily heal myself but I can get into this flow where the pain is not as great as if I'm in my fear and anxiety mode.

So I do really pay attention to the flow and where the pain is coming from.

Is it truly a physical pain that needs to be fixed by a professional?

And I am so thankful for all the professionals that we do have,

Medical professionals,

Because I do believe that they provide so much relief for so many and I'm so grateful because I have been a benefactor of that and I've needed it.

However,

There are some moments where I do need to pause and really pay attention to is this something I need to be aware of and work on to make myself better.

So there's that.

How about this,

Have you ever had a situation where you have more confidence in someone else's experiences than your own?

Almost like you're a cheerleader for someone else and you will cheer them on and cheer them on but you won't do the same for yourself.

There's moments where we need to be our own cheerleader.

We need to have that confidence.

How can we cheer someone else on over and over and over if we're not cheering ourselves on,

Right?

It kind of goes back to how can you truly love someone else if you don't love yourself?

So make sure that you are having that confidence in yourself as well as sharing the confidence and cheering someone else on.

Okay,

So make sure you have that.

So the big question is usually how do I connect to my intuition?

And the answer is one day at a time.

And that's,

It sounds like a very simple answer,

But life is going to change and we are all going to change.

And I know very clearly when I'm not living with intention and listening to my intuition,

And just recently I've been struggling to stay present and trying to live in my discomfort,

But I'm also human and life happens.

And so,

You know,

We can meditate all we want,

We can do mindfulness practices all we want,

We can do yoga,

We can eat clean.

I mean,

We can do all of these things and I strive for myself to do these things.

But I also remember I'm human and I'm going to fall off the wagon sometimes and it's going to happen.

But I also remind myself I can hop right back on that wagon and keep on trucking and get back into my flow.

So always remember that.

Now here's some of my intuition stories beginning when I was younger,

Okay?

And there it took me a while to understand that I did know some things,

I did know how to connect with my intuition and I didn't realize it until I got older and really started paying attention and living the life through this way.

Okay,

So when I was young,

Dating back,

I mean,

Like before I was 10 years old,

My intuition told me I needed to keep one of my family members at a distance and this family member was not a nice person when they were drinking.

And I do my best to stay away from them,

But being a small child,

I was forced to spend time with this person.

And as an adult,

I realized that this person struggles with alcohol because they were raised in a family of abusers,

Meaning alcohol abusers.

And unfortunately,

They aren't strong enough to take a different path.

And I love this person because they are,

Especially when they are sober,

And they're not drinking,

Because they're very enjoyable,

Really fun to be with.

But I know now to keep my distance when they are drinking.

So that's just something I think we all might have a little bit in that of our in our life.

Now,

Here's another one.

As a young age,

My intuition told me that I had psychic abilities,

Meaning I can connect with the divine spirits who deliver messages to me for other people,

I can feel that I can feel the better direction to take.

When someone else thinks I should do something different,

Like I know what I need to do next,

It will ping me,

I will just absolutely know and I can I can feel this for other people as well.

It's not me thinking this is what you should be doing.

It's,

It's a feeling a very strong,

Strong feeling.

But as a young person,

And this goes for,

I would say,

Probably 99% of all of us,

We are put into a box and told what we should and shouldn't be feeling being doing and accomplishing in our life,

Right.

And so that's just part of life.

That's just one of these things we have to unpack and connect with.

Now my intuition told me,

This is in my 20s,

To move across the country from Chicago to Denver,

Because it was time for me to live my life.

And I did it because I was listening.

And it was like the most epic time in my life.

It was some of the most uncomfortable moments in my life,

There was a lot of discomfort,

Which led to me living in that discomfort so that I can crack open some knowledge and some wisdom and some direction of what I needed to do.

And one of the things that happened to me during that time when I lived in Colorado,

My intuition told me not to get married the first time.

And guess what,

So did my mom,

She was the only one who came to me and said,

Are you sure this is what you want to do?

But the should shields that I kept listening to,

And then I was raised with raised with told me that this was as good as it was going to get,

You know,

Here I am in my late 20s,

I was like,

27,

28.

And I'm like,

You know what,

Everyone I know is married,

Having babies,

I guess this is as good as it's going to get for me,

I guess I will say yes.

However,

Here's a situation when I turned the fear of being alone into the discomfort of what I needed to learn to grow.

I was in a very lonely relationship in that marriage.

But looking back,

It was the moment that I am glad I went against my intuition.

And this is the this is what's needed to be known as we also need to be aware of the wisdom that can be gained when we jump back into the flow.

So this is one of those moments where we knew we shouldn't have done something right,

We know we shouldn't have done it.

It's not we knew it wasn't the right thing for us to do.

We did it anyway.

So if we are then going to jump into the flow of our intuition,

We are going to have the wherewithal to sit back and learn from what the experience has taught us,

So that we can use that knowledge and that wisdom gained to make better choices in the future.

Okay.

Now,

Here's another great example.

I still love this example.

And I love this story of my intuition told me when I needed to take a professional class in Evanston,

Northwestern in Chicago area,

And my whole life changed because that's where I met my now husband.

And that was 16 over 16 years ago.

So that was a really great life lesson of listening to my intuition.

I just knew knew knew like,

I can still hear the story of when I knew I needed to go how I met him like I can still to this day just remember all of it so clearly because it absolutely was supposed to happen.

A recent one in the last five years is my intuition told me when I needed to start working as an intuitive coach and a Reiki master and here I am and and I'm doing this podcast.

I'm on a beautiful app called insight timer is a teacher and it's just leading me into so many beautiful directions.

Now recognition of discomfort.

I believe that people are in my path for a reason and I need to wake up to the planted wisdom moving to little Little Rock and some of the relationships that I jumped into front new friendships and things just from the need and the want and the desire to to have relationships in a new place didn't didn't exactly serve me when I first got here.

And that was me just living kind of in the fear of I'm in a new place.

Gosh,

Is anyone gonna like me?

How am I going to meet people?

And just really knowing being in the discomfort of all these new relationships and new energies and new people.

I love this place more than one of the this is one of the greatest places I've ever lived.

But this is a time for me to grow and understand what the relationships I need to connect with.

Here's another discomfort thing that we all get to learn.

I can't teach something.

I'm sorry,

I can't teach someone something that they're not ready to absorb.

But I can plant a seed for when they're ready to connect.

This is 100% parental learning curve.

100% and I,

I now say these things to my kids and my,

It's so funny because they're like,

Mom,

You're just planting a seed.

All right,

And I only plant so many times now.

You know,

It does get annoying if you are a parent and you're telling your child over and over and over to do something and it's annoying when they don't do it.

So now there's consequences for me and for them.

Here's another one of this recognition of discomfort.

I can't teach something that I don't already know or haven't experienced.

How often how often especially when I was in the professional world that you know,

There were so many things that I would have to train about.

I'm like,

I need to learn how to do this before I can train it right.

Like how how many times are we trying to explain something or be part of something that we don't know anything about we need to educate ourselves.

How about this someone can't root for you if they're not rooting for themselves and vice versa.

You know,

It kind of goes back to that cheerleader comment I talked about earlier.

It's very difficult to root and root and root for someone else when I'm empty.

If I'm empty and I'm exhausted,

I'm spent.

I'm just I'm just going on fumes.

I'm not being authentic,

Right?

I'm not being authentic.

And neither is someone else if they're not rooting for themselves.

So when has something been too good to be true in your life?

And why is it that hard to embrace?

Why is it hard to embrace when something feels too good to be true?

Well,

Because we're taught that things need to be hard and scary,

Right?

Oh,

It's too good to be true.

It can't there's no way that can be true.

Yeah,

I can.

Things can be too good to be true.

All right.

So we're gonna wrap this episode up just for today.

Ask yourself,

Are you having a moment of discomfort?

Or are you stuck in fear?

The difference is real.

And if you are,

You can always hop back into the flow of your intuition.

Just give yourself some pause.

Give yourself a break.

Give someone else a break to.

I think we don't do that enough in our society.

We jump to conclusions so quickly.

We jump into our fear of what someone else might be feeling or saying instead of having a moment to pause and have a conversation.

So go ahead and give yourself a break today.

And when you do give someone else a break.

All right.

Well,

Thanks so much for joining me.

And until next time,

I hope you can shift today into a greater tomorrow.

Bye bye.

This episode of Shift Today with Allison was created,

Directed,

Produced,

Edited and written and 100% done by Allison Chuhazi.

That's me.

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