I feel hungry

.

We feel emotions - which are vibrations in our body.
We feel sensations - which are vibration in our body.

The BIG difference is:

Emotions begin in our brain and travel to our body.  
Sensations begin in our body and travel to our brain.

Hunger, thirst, heat, cold, sick all start in our body and signal our brain to DO something about it.

Mean, weak, lonely, angry, bored all start in our brains and signal our body to DO something about it.

Emotions are truly a gift.  They let us know when there is something we need to pay attention to, something is out of balance.  They fuel the things we do - or do NOT do.  They are the root of every decision we make, goal we reach, or dream we let die, and every relationship we grow or neglect all because of how we want to feel.

I do the dishes because I think I will feel proud to have a clean kitchen in case someone drops by.  I don't go to the gym because I think I will feel fat and out of shape.  I go to Aunty June's party because I think I will feel guilty if I don't.  I don't break up with the nowhere guy because I think I will feel lonely if I have no one.

We are pleasure seeking machines - moving toward positive emotions and away from negative ones because of how it feels.  Just as we seek pleasure of any kind in food, drugs, alcohol, Netflix, sex and even work.  We do NOT want to feel discomfort of any kind.  Look at our commercials and magazine ads.

Have a headache?  Take this.  Feel tired?  Have a Redbull.  Think you're fat?  Follow this plan.  Feel bored?  Have a Snickers. (that one might be good advice!)  Whatever you do, do NOT sit with the discomfort not even for a minute.

Beware:  This thinking will limit your potential if you resist or avoid feeling discomfort.

The way I look at it, you are just choosing your discomfort.

Take your weight and fitness.

It's uncomfortable to change your eating plan.  You like what you like.  It's uncomfortable to get sweaty and sore exercising.  You hate the morning after a workout when you can hardly get off the toilet, your legs are so sore.  AND it's uncomfortable to get breathless tying your shoes.  It's uncomfortable when your thighs chafe when you walk around Costco.  It's uncomfortable to live with diabetes.

So one way or the other, you will experience discomfort.  You choose.

Take marriage.

 It's uncomfortable to compromise. I want meatloaf and he wants pizza.  It's uncomfortable to live with your opposite (the very thing that attracted you). He wants it white glove clean and you're, shall we say, a lot more relaxed about housework.  It's uncomfortable to have different ideas on how the bonus should be spent.  A big screen TV or a cruise.  AND it's uncomfortable to fight.  It's uncomfortable to separate.  It's uncomfortable to go through a divorce.  It's uncomfortable to sign up for a dating site.

Choose your discomfort.  Discomfort does not equal BAD.

When I experience discomfort, I'm learning to get excited because I know growth is about to happen.  I will become a new best version of myself.  What if we ran towards the discomfort because of the prize on the other side?  That would be a new thought. Brooke Castillo teaches "Discomfort is the currency of your dreams."  Pay up!

Make a commitment.  Be courageous.  Hang on through the hard part - the River of Misery - until you develop your Capability which feeds your Confidence to do it all again.  These are Dan Sullivan's 4 C's.  Commitment, Courage, Capability, Confidence.  There is no 5th C - Comfort.

 I do discomfort - do you?