Mastering Discomfort
How I’m becoming comfortable amidst life’s uneasiness and how you can too
When thinking about my future and specifically the year ahead of me during the holiday season, I (like many) was busy preparing to pull together my 2025 vision board and generating my list of new year’s resolutions. While I normally enjoy doing this and give into all the hoopla around these activities, I really wasn’t all that inspired to follow through. I had a ton of ideas along with things that were already pre-planned like some fun trips and upcoming celebrations. The one thing that seemed constant while trying to perfectly plan out my new year, was the idea of discomfort. In our 20s there seems to be this overarching theme of “discomfort,” but what really is it? And why do some of us fear it and some of us love it?
I realized that I was only going to put one thing on my new year’s resolution list this year: Find peace in discomfort.
It’s drama, I know. But to be quite honest, simply having my one resolution of Find Peace in Discomfort somehow gave me comfort. Now that we are halfway through the year, I am shocked at how many things I have already accomplished that oddly enough brought me discomfort without even realizing it. For example, here are the big discomforts I did starting in January to the end of March. To preface, I like to look at small and big discomforts more so like small and big wins- because when you overcome something uncomfortable that’s a win:
I went on a 2 week long solo trip to California (I have never been to the west coast) and rented a car to drive down and make stops along the Pacific Coast Highway
Sitting in my confusion about certain relationships in my life (AKA not letting myself go into spirals, which is quite easy for me to do)
Facing some things about myself that I am not particularly fond of and talking through them
Finishing my first full marathon
The smaller discomforts:
Posting daily outfit videos to my @always.maura instagram (are you following???!! ;) )
I got a new tattoo (went to the place by myself!)
I went skydiving with my hometown friends on a whim
Taking on new tasks at my job that I’m not super experienced in but is a part of my growth there (if you’re not feeling dumb you’re not getting any smarter)
Now, I’m not listing these things out to try to be prideful and say “look at me!! Look what I did and you didn’t do!” I separated these based on what I personally found to be my own small and big wins but it looks different for everybody.
I did all of these things with a very “go for it" mentality and to be quite honest I was scared doing every single one. If there’s one thing about me I think being fearful is SO annoying. Normal- yes. But I get the most annoyed when it’s myself who is being fearful.
As someone who has their own mental health struggles and has been held back by them in the past, I also felt like this resolution would be like exposure therapy. Again it’s dramatic, but putting myself into new experiences and overcoming and finding peace throughout the process has not only made the outcome of each activity more fulfilling, but has helped me have a new mindset and perspective on my life. Not to mention how it makes any smaller and maybe seemingly hard tasks seem easier.
For me, discomfort brought me comfort for a few reasons: 1. I wanted to keep a record of the things I am experiencing throughout this year for my own personal log of life and to keep these memories sharp. 2. This is helping me get back into my hobby and love for writing which I also can find scary to share sometimes and 3. I want to continue to challenge myself and share my experiences because I know in the past it has helped me to see other people just going for it.
I want to emphasize that finding peace in discomfort doesn’t have to be extremes like running a marathon and skydiving in the span of two weeks (honestly would not recommend). But it can be as simple as taking yourself out on a solo date or doing something that actually makes you feel sick but then afterwards you feel amazing. As cliche as it sounds, the only way to get over your fears is to face them! Also, do it for the plot?? I want to be an old grandma who doesn’t stop yapping about the random things she decided to do in life.
The point is to be uncomfortable- and be okay with that. All the things I listed above earlier, big and small, were hard and sometimes scary.
It’s so easy to stay in routine or keep playing it safe and that’s normal of course. But, having this resolution be the one thing that drives many of my decisions has helped me overcome my own personal battles and has made living life so much more fun because it should be.
I’m planning to follow up at the end of this year, with the new things I have done and share about the process of each one. This first part of the year was filled with a lot of big milestones and was also a lot of me putting this resolution into action, but I am excited to see what the rest of this year brings. Until next time!
