Resisting Discomfort

I have just finished a workshop called Working with the Karma’s of the Enneagram. The workshop introduces us to word puzzles that challenge and move us toward the clearing of karmic debt.  The karmic work in the TWO space continues to stay with me as the week draws to a close.  The karma in TWO is “Resist Discomfort” and it reminds me of how our culture is one that seeks out the most comfortable way of living.

But is that comfort helping us grow?

Is that comfort helping us be the best we can be?

We are made of the dust of the cosmos. Some may say we are made in the image of a Great Creator. Everything on our planet is drawn to new life…. naturally growing and evolving. Meeting the challenges of the world in a new and creative way is an inherent call for each of us, but being a creator takes energy, creating takes patience, and creating can be painful.

As comfort-seeking humans we are not fond of pain. Pain reminds us of our mortality and if we only focus on our human body we indeed are limited to a short time here. But if we are able to slow down and pay attention to our inner lives—our Essential Selves, we begin to remember that there is more than this earthly life.

Discomfort does not necessarily lead to an untimely end. Being with discomfort can be an awakening to something new—allowing something to move into a process of creation.

A Discomforting Challenge

When we are witnessing people in discomfort, can we imagine they are in a gestation period leading to a new birth? And when WE are uncomfortable witnessing our loved ones in a state of discomfort, are we able to enter our own process of creation by cradling ourselves in our pain? Thus, letting something new be born in us? 

Working with our discomfort helps us all find our true call for compassion. Not in the taking away of pain, but the allowing of the discomfort that can birth something new?

Dale Bially
Inspired Enneagram