Embracing the Discomfort of New Truths
A funny thing happened to me at the gym today. I was midway through my cardio routine when I looked at my heart rate and noticed that it seemed higher than I thought it should be at that point in my workout. Instantly, my mind began to spiral—cardiac distress was clearly imminent!
Then I remembered to myself, “At this point in my workout I always have the display set to calories burned, not my heart rate. I usually only check my heart rate at the beginning and end.” I began to laugh at myself because I realized I’d been stressing over data I don’t normally even see. My heart rate was most likely always like that mid cardio sesh—I just hadn’t been paying attention before.
I’m sharing this because it’s a digestible, real-world example of how our brains can spin out when new information doesn’t align with what we THINK we know. This is an important truth to reflect on because it helps to explain why we can be so resistant to growth, even when we suspect it will be good for us.
When our brains are confronted with new or challenging information it creates a reckoning period that must be waded through, and this is the dirty work of consciousness expansion —and also the process by which empowerment is embodied.
Receiving new information about our reality can stir up fear or worry that we’re bad, ignorant, or have failed for having spent so long in the dark. We move through this by accepting that the truth was always there and that now we’ve just been given the gift of access to it and thus initiated onto an expanded playing field of possibilities. We may have more to fear the more we see, but we also have more magic and miracles at our fingertips.
Growth requires us to step into the discomfort of the unknown. When new information shows up, it can feel like everything we thought we knew is being called into question. This is okay. What we know, no matter how much or how little, has power over us in exactly the measure we give it.
At every level it’s you against you, so why NOT level up?
