Many people believe that they are having good time and happy by avoiding discomfort in life and by avoiding struggles that are beneficial for them. They think that avoiding discomfort keeps them comfortable which is false. We tend to ignore and avoid especially those voluntary sufferings that keeps us healthy like exercising, eating right, sleeping well, inculcating other healthy habits.
We choose to avoid uncomfortable situations in our life, in our job, in our relationships, when it comes to taking a stand for what we believe in. Most probably many of us would take the liberty to avoid any kind of discomfort or suffering because they have the control to do so. However, the paradox is that those are the exact things that we need to do to grow for our upliftment.
Many people live a life of instant gratifications, short term outlook, immediate results, indulge in pleasure seeking behaviour , avoiding pain and effort for our self-improvement.
Ofcourse one may find many ways to avoid discomfort at the moment and continue with this approach for a long time in life. But eventually this attitude would catch up and cause chronic low grade pain and discomfort in life. This low grade suffering could be in the form of chronic disease that causes lifelong discomfort, it could be in the form of you not getting the recognition in the job, it could be in the form of conflicts in relationships, it could be in the form of displeasure on what you are doing with your life.
The result of avoiding the healthy and good struggles in life would be like blunt trauma. Blunt pain can be clearly felt but we can still skimp through it. It cannot be directly mapped to our unhealthy lifestyle habits but the resultant slow yet numbing pain could be experienced in various aspects in one’s life. The ill-effects of not having discipline could be delayed and unrecognizable, but it can be dangerous like a tiny wound when not treated on time could spread the septic infection all over the body.
So seek voluntary suffering that is in your control with respect to your physical, mental and emotional wellbeing. Involve yourself and push yourself to test the limits of your potential regularly.
Sit in discomfort and pain instead of immediately jumping out of the situation using some distractions like social media, watching brainless videos or simply eating something out of boredom. Sit alone and spend some time with your own thoughts once in a while.
Spending time alone to evaluate ourselves is one of the most uncomfortable feelings, but we would become better if we are objective in our own assessment.
All hormetic activities that does not kill you would help you adopt and grow. Like exercise, calorie restriction on certain days, fasting, cold baths, hot baths, sauna, holotropic breathing techniques, meditation, yoga etc.,
*Do read the Disclaimer