A Trick to Navigate Discomfort

Hi, welcome back to your Daily Mindfulness. In today's session we're going to talk about being with difficult experiences. When it comes to experiencing something difficult, the tendency is to just focus on the pain and the frustration. It becomes all we can see and so our experience becomes one of pain, despair. This can often lead to a sense of hopelessness and just general frustration.

But there's a way that we can reorient ourself in response to a difficult situation that changes how we perceive it and thus how we experience it. And this is when we can focus on the strengths required to meet the difficult experience. So for instance, if you're working with chronic pain simultaneously recognizing that this requires courage. If you're having a difficult conversation, simultaneously recognize that maybe this requires a certain kind of leadership and openness. If you're a worker being on a difficult problem that you can't figure out in work or in your personal relationship, remind yourself that this requires your creativity, which is a strength.

Our tendency is to focus more on our weaknesses, our inadequacies. It's especially true when we're going through something difficult. But don't forget that with the worst experiences requires the best within us. See if you can keep this in mind when you're going through your next difficult experience. Thank you for your practice.

I'll talk to you in the meditation and take care.