Healthy Discomfort is the key to amazing health, growth, and evolution for all the family
Healthy Discomfort is something that I’ve worked on getting a whole lot better at over the past 7 years. Embracing healthy discomfort all over the place has been possibly the most important factor of all in my recovery fro 20+ years of Chronic Fatigue syndrome. (I’ve written about this one before, but it’s SO IMPORTANT that I have to write about it again!)
Most people avoid ALL discomfort, and pay a price. Unfit, unhealthy bodies. Distressed, anxious minds. Pets with preventable health conditions, anxiety, poor behaviour. Toxic relationships. And many other unhelpful things that are also uncomfortable in the end!
The way that many people function is that they do the easy thing now to avoid the healthy discomfort of doing the hard thing that is what is actually needed. They have a chocolate bar. They allow their dog to jump all over them when they are small and cute. They put off exercising. They eat processed foods instead of going to the trouble of cooking healthy meals. This is immediate gratification, and the opposite of healthy discomfort
The problem with this is that the discomfort that comes from all of these choices is real, but it builds up very slowly over a long time, until suddenly you’re ina world of hurt, your life is a mess, your body is terribly unwell, and it can then be hard or impossible to reverse all of this and get back to being well, comfortable, and functional. Especially as we get older!
Healthy discomfort is good for you. It is not harmful (when you do it right). It builds your will, resilience, strength, health, wellbeing, and heart stronger and stronger. Your pets need healthy discomfort too – and the better YOU are at healthy discomfort, the better you can support your pets in taking them through the healthy discomfort they need to have the best possible life.
HEALTHY DISCOMFORT 101 – here’s how to a) get started, b) keep going, and c) build more and more capacity over time
I think the most important step is to realise and understand that healthy discomfort is one of the best things you can have in your life. As soon as you get that, and make it a priority to build healthy discomforts into your life, then you’ll make it happen. Getting started! You need to look at your life, and pick one thing to begin with.
If you haven’t yet done any resistance exercise, I suggest starting with at least some kind of resistance exercise 5 mornings every week. (If you do, then start steadily increasing it!) Pushups are ideal, because you don’t need anything except the floor. If you can do them off your toes, do. If not, do them of your knees. If you can’t to that, lean against a bench or the wall. But DO them. It’ll be uncomfortable. That’s good! You’ll have sore muscles on day 2, 3, maybe even 4. That’s good too.
Once you get one good healthy discomfort consistently active in your life, pick the next one, and then the next one, and keep on layering them into your life.
Here are some areas to consider as you keep on increasing yoru capacity.
Diet- cut out stimulants, sugar, alcohol, processed foods. Eat healthy whole foods.
Exercise – aerobic exercise
Stretching- yoga, tai chi, chi gong
Relationships – healthy boundaries, healing old patterns and traumas
Pets- healthy boundaries, healthy yes, healthy no
Finances- budgeting etc
Time management- scheduling, discipline
Social media- reducing scrolling time
And there are many more! The secret is to make doing this a strong priority in your life, and do ti all no matter how you feel. I am living proof fo how incredibly beneficial this is. My life, in every way, is exponentially better than it was 5-7 years ago, and I am till enjoying ongoing improvements!
Here’s a short video of me discussing this topic.
– Enjoy this article? You can check out last week’s one at this link.
– Want to work with me to create harmony for your pets (and maybe for you) with holistic veterinary consultations, intuitive insights, and energy healing? Drop into www.thehealingvet.com and book a free call with me. And if you’d like to learn how to heal your pets (and yourself) with loving touch and energy healing, check out www.wholeenergybodybalance.com
Gem and Loki snoozing