Hey Majestic Daughter! What's happening?
“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” —Martin Luther King, Jr.
This is something I’ve struggled with all my life. In life I preferred the easy road. It is natural that as humans our inclination is to stick with the status quo, to resist the unknown, to stay comfortable. I would say that it was tied to my drive to survive. Often I was afraid of trying something new. I chose to avoid change. Maybe you can say I was afraid to push myself to the next level because I feared what that would look like.
I learned from being comfortable with the uncomfortable. I learned that life was not always about creating safety and security and pursuing contentment. YES, they are important in life, but I had to learn that life is filled with pleasure as well as pain, satisfaction as well as suffering, and delight as well as difficulty. I learned that when I only focused on the comfortable side of life I robbed myself of growth. I was cheating myself of valuable life lessons, cheating myself of knowledge, skills and the compassion that came along with the uncomfortable side of life. I began to understand that I played it safe – but I took no risks. I steered clear of anything that did not fit what I felt was my life. This fed FEARS - fear of conflict and fear to challenge myself beyond what I knew I could handle.
I had to accept the notion that I must be willing to step into the unknown. I had to be willing to challenge myself to GROWTH and CHANGE. Yes, change often feels uncomfortable, but what no one ever taught me was fear, anxiety and discomfort are all natural, human reactions to life at one point or another. It is not what you feel, it is how you handle and cope with what you feel that truly matters. I had to self-engage and shift the paradigm.
That first started with changing my thoughts from, “change happens to me” TO “change is happening for me”. I had to develop and possess CONFIDENCE to navigate through the change.
Lastly, I had to be willing to step outside of my comfort zone. I had to learn myself and what God desired for my life despite what the situations looked or felt like. I had to learn that it’s in those uncomfortable seasons, those uncomfortable circumstances that God was refining me, making me dependent on Him, perfecting His strength in my weaknesses. As I began to read the bible about all the biblical women, it was then that I was reminded of how God positioned those women in uncomfortable situations before positioning them in their purpose. What made me any different? I began to tell myself, “there is purpose in pain, but how will you ever know if you never experience it.”
That day, I vowed to walk through the uncomfortable because in most areas of my life I had become COMFORTABLE.
No it’s not comfortable but God promises that it’s worth it.
Tips for Learning to Be Comfortable With Being Uncomfortable and Embracing Change
1. When experiencing feelings of discomfort, stand, embrace and acknowledge the change.
2. Having self-awareness and challenging your very thoughts often.
3. Change your outlook from a negative to a positive perspective.
4. Give yourself positive affirmations daily.
Sis, drop your comments below on how you will BE BRAVE in embracing change...
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