Comfortable With Being Uncomfortable - Oct 11

What would it be like to travel through life not being scared of frightening thoughts? In today's 5 Minutes in Nature Liz is reflecting on a phrase she heard which has enormous power. It came from someone on her retreat who had felt quite insecure when he arrived. He said, 'I now feel comfortable with being uncomfortable'. What do you make of that for you?

Transcript

Hello and welcome to Five Minutes in Nature with me Liz Scott. I'm really noticing those autumnal colours, The oak leaves in the lane turning that orangey golden brown and this real sense of anticipation as we move deeper into autumn. For me, This is a wonderful time of year. I love this sense of slowing down and I love this sense of having night times in front of the fire and engaging and creative projects. I love crochet. I just thought I'd let you know that I love sitting in front of the fire and working on a crochet project. So for me this is a wonderful time of year and I want to share something with you today that I feel it's really central to how I experience life when I came across the Inside Out Understanding, Also known as the Three Principles, And there's a course here on Insight Timer if you want to know more about that. But the three principles is basically sharing something that's profound. The inside out understanding shares two things. One is that we are deeply okay. And that we create our experience through thought. And those two things that we're deeply okay and we experience and we create our experience through thought is really the summary of what I want to share with you today. Because recently I was running a retreat and one of the participants said the following at the end of the retreat. He said, Do you know what? I came in here feeling like my head was full of busy things and I felt quite insecure. But he said, Now, He said, I feel comfortable with being uncomfortable. I feel comfortable with being uncomfortable. That's how it feels. And a recent example is I've just launched my book. And the book I've written about the pilgrimage and it's just been published, It's self-published, And I've been going on little book talks, Book signings in coffee shops and different places, People's studios, Just to share my book with different people. The book is The Call of Ancient Lands and it's all about my pilgrimage. But when I first started to let people know that I was doing these book signings and book talks and book I felt an incredible sense of vulnerability. I found myself lost in a flurry of insecure thinking. Thinking which was like, What if nobody comes? What if nobody buys this book? What if people read it and they think it's rubbish? You know, What if, What if, What if? And I know from the work that I've done that despite feeling really uncomfortable with these thoughts, And the feelings that came with these thoughts, Because I know that one, I'm deeply okay, And that I create my experiences through thought, I knew not to trust the thinking, And I knew that there was something else that was more true, And that something else was that I am deeply okay. So I put out the information about the book talks, And I felt uncomfortable. I didn't need to feel comfortable in order to put out the information. And that really goes back to what this chap was saying in our retreat, Which is, I'm comfortable with being uncomfortable. If I know that I am sharing something or being something in the world that is coming from a place that feels right, Feels as though it's coming from intuition and wisdom, Then that, Despite the feelings I might have about what I'm engaging with or putting out or sharing or creating, I know that whatever my feelings, Whatever my thinking, Whatever my insecure thinking, I'm going to be okay. I'm okay with not feeling okay. I'm comfortable with feeling uncomfortable. So my question to you is this, What would it be like for you if you could feel comfortable with being uncomfortable? What would open up for you in your life? Let me know your reflections and don't forget to join me again tomorrow for another five minutes in nature.

Reviews

Yes – yes! Pema Chodron discusses a similar idea in her book, Welcoming the Unwelcome! I am still working on both of these concepts!

It looks like awareness instead of avoidance for me. I keep waiting for a dramatic shift in my thinking and behavior- into acceptance of this truth- but instead I find it’s an almost imperceptible step change. Thank you Liz.