The Power of being ever so slightly uncomfortable

Hello all,

I think I approach the world in a very weird way.

Most people live their lives seeking comfort.  They want the money that will buy the lovely squishy sofas and the luxurious blankets, the bubbly bubbly hot tubs and the first class airplane seats that include sips of wine and elbow room.

I, of course, love all these things too.  I don't necessarily get all these things, but I love the idea of these things.   I too have bought into the whole concept of earning money earning money earning money towards my someday comfort.

But overall I don't approach the world with little dollar signs (or in my current situation, yen signs) dancing in my eyes.

I approach the world with a specific philosophy:   living with slight and steady discomfort is good for us.

I don't mean physical discomfort.  I don't choose to sit in a chair with sharp spikes on it rather than a regular chair.  I don't start my day walking over hot coals or drinking straight vinegar.  I don't go to sleep at night on a bed of ice cubes and hydrochloric acid.

I mean discomfort in a broader sense.  

In my humble opinion, we live in a world of complacency.  We get lulled into daily routines, monthly obligations, Monday through Friday zombie movements followed by weekends of either exhaustion or excess.  Or both exhaustion and excess, depending on the person.

And what is the remedy for complacency?  Discomfort.  Shaking things up a bit.  Going outside our comfort zone, in ways tiny and huge.

For example, this is our third time living in Japan.  At this point we have lived a significant portion of our lives in a state of slight discomfort.   By this time there are aspects to our lives in Japan that have taken on a whiff of that dreaded complacency.  Now that I'm teaching again, I get up at the same time every weekday morning.  I eat pretty much the same thing for breakfast (because I hate eating breakfast but need to do it, so I eat what seems palatable, even if it isn't logical).  I take the same bus. I walk the same streets.  Once in the classroom I maintain the same daily schedule because young students need their immediate future to be reliable and fairly predictable.

But there is a huge part of our lives that we cannot take for granted.  We cannot be complacent when it comes to navigating long train rides to new destinations.  We cannot take for granted that we necessarily will know how to navigate the Japanese tax system, or know what that besuited man at the door is trying to sell to us.

I won't lie to you.   Living on the edge of comprehension is not for everyone.  And there are many MANY times when we find it exceedingly tiresome and annoying and downright discouraging.  But hey, at least we can't be complacent.....which is my point.

I think it is important for us to choose to do things, to see things, to explore things that make us slightly uncomfortable.    Feeling unsettled, needing to take the time to explore our own feelings and beliefs, challenging ourselves keeps us humble and helps us stay open to the diversity of the world.

So when I hear about a news commentator, or a politician or anyone spouting off what essentially amounts to hatred, I just think "Well, there's a person who is way, way too comfortable."

Ain't it the truth.....