Are we sorry for the feeling itself, or for how we feel about the feeling? Is it our nature to only seek comfort? Or are we made to endure, even embrace, discomfort? Our natural instinct seems to move us toward the familiar, to stay where we feel safe. And yet, life does not seem to come that way. The moments we remember—the ones that define us—are rarely those spent in ease. They are the moments of struggle, challenge, and suffering. The ones where we were tested, stretched, and forced to find something deeper within ourselves. Discomfort, though unwelcome, is where we grow. It’s where we become. It seems odd to say that discomfort is where the magic happens, but it is in the unfamiliar, the uncertain, and the hard that we meet ourselves fully. In physical, emotional, and mental discomfort, we discover our resilience, our clarity, our strength, and meaning. The question we are left with is: Would we have found ourselves any other way?

Loving life in spite of and because of discomfort
Joe