You need to become comfortable with being uncomfortable.
I’m not sure who said this, or why, or when I first heard it, but I keep thinking about it. I keep trying to become more comfortable with the current situation.
Ain’t working for me though, on the whole. I’m used to lockdown, maybe, or more accustomed to it. Certainly bored by it. But not really comfortable.
Perhaps used to it is enough. It’s getting me by. I’m managing. The whole situation doesn’t throw me as much as it did. I suppose I’m not as uncomfortable with it as I was last year.
But comfort suggests something akin to relaxation to me, something that feels earned and naturally good. This getting by smacks of stoicism or resilience, no bad thing but it doesn’t make me want to put my feet up, guiltlessly.
So am I comfortable with not expecting too much of anything or anyone at the moment, myself included? Well, I’ve accepted things the way they are I suppose. Increasingly I seem take things in my stride, shrug a lot, adopting a such is life approach to daily happenings.
Zoning Out
But this plateaued state is more akin to a kind of comfort zone, at least on the domestic front, which is quite different from the healthy comfortability most of us strive for in life.
In the comfort zone you vegetate, mindlessly, like institutionalised pigs in shit as my partner would say. No challenge, no dissent, no disruption. No difference or contrast. It’s life as porridge. It’s not exactly a vital existence but it’s getting us through.
None of us personally opted for a virus to change the way we live. We’ve acknowledged the situation and conformed to restrictions we know are necessary but which, for many of us, go against the grain. We’re going along with it because we know it’s the right thing to do but it’s taking its toll on our joie de vivre
Not so much on the work front though. Here I, along with millions of other people, have had to fight private apathy from the shelter of home and simply carry on trying to make a living as best possible.
Owning my Comeback
My business has been hard hit this year and I’ve had no free state support. So I’ve been adapting on the hoof for months, learning to flip and diversify. This (despite the pressure) I’m more comfortable with. Perhaps because it’s about action rather than passivity. It’s up to me. I’m taking ownership of something in my life and having a go at it. I feel a tiny bit exhilarated and a lot more in control. That small amount of autonomy contributes to my overall feeling of comfortability.
Comfortablity has connotations of being engaged in one’s own wellbeing. It’s a skill we need to continually hone. Becoming aware of what’s working for you personally and making an effort to seek it or manifest it; flexing and adjusting when it doesn’t come true, learning and having another go; recognising that the journey itself is keeping you going. And when you do occasionally notice that you are comfortable and at ease, acknowledging that it’s OK to enjoy it.