Was on a run this morning and felt pain in my Achilles and various other parts of my body. I decided to really take my attention to the pain and did so throughout the duration of the run. As I did this a saying kept coming back to me. WHAT YOU RESIST PERSISTS.

I actually believe that the things we ignore or resist not only persist but continually grow. My body pain was uncomfortable but had I not meditated on it I believe it would have stopped me from running. I am now more than ever realizing that as soon as I feel discomfort I tend to rush into judgment. That I have been conditioned to be a little precious with life’s discomforts.

I think our society in general is not good in handling discomfort. We are increasingly more becoming a society that looks for quick fixes to our discomfort. We seem to want to bury much of what we feel so deeply that it becomes out of mind. I wonder if much of our physical pain is related to this quick fix mentality to discomfort.

I think that much physical pain is due to suppressed emotional pain. Then when the emotional becomes physical we are too quick to treat the symptom rather than slow down and patiently look for the root cause. I think much of this comes down to what I see as a common human dysfunction. I believe that our communication skills are terrible. That we are so self absorbed in avoiding discomfort that we are shallow in how we interact with ourselves and others.

Life is confusing at times and often is uncomfortable. However avoiding discomfort on a physical and/or emotional level is manipulating what is. It is not accepting what we are feeling and creating a resistance that is stored deep inside. The more we store things the more chance that we become precious people capable of destructive behaviour. Further we become addicted to the activities and substances that we believe are curing us of pain and discomfort.

On my run I slowed my mind and honored my discomfort. As I did this I found that my mind accepted what I was feeling and the feelings began to communicate with me. By the time I finished my run I felt physically less restricted and emotionally very empowered. I believe that if more people accepted their discomfort that we could become physically healthier people. Further that we would become more honest and emotionally secure people. People who would then become less self absorbed in pain and more connected to life, relationship and love.