Life is Hard Because We Think it is Easy

At the first sign of discomfort our initial, automatic reaction, is to flee. Our brains have thousands of years of genetics putting our sympathetic nervous system into action when we feel we are in danger or uncomfortable situations. If you are reading this, I am assuming you live a relatively comfortable life. Living in the United States, with food in our fridge, water at our facets, a roof over our heads, lights at the flip of a switch, and cars to drive us anywhere we need to go, we are more comfortable than nearly anyone else in the world and any of our ancestors. We do not need to wake up at sunrise to till our crops. We do not need to risk our lives on a daily basis. We work office jobs and cozy up in bed to some Netflix. Our comfortable lives make us think life is hard when we experience challenges. The reality is we do not know what a hard life is.

This quote represents the cycle of life and the comforts we have. We are currently in the latter part of this cycle where depending on who you ask, we are either in easy times making us soft or are already soft people creating hard times for our future. We may think we are comfortable with where we are in life. We have homes, we have families that love us, and we have no immediate dangers in our life. Leading monotonous days of comfort do not help us prepare for tough times nor do they help us elevate ourselves to where we want to be as individuals. The only path to true comfort is by reaching the level of mind that is comfortable with the inevitable discomfort that life presents. We increase our level of mind by challenging ourselves and solving problems.

These physical challenges are intentionally employed to increase the pain threshold to then realize a higher sense of mindfulness. This state is not possible through skipping workouts, sleeping in, or warm baths. The evolution of our state of mind, capability to respond to discomfort, and ability to solve problems, comes from engulfing our minds and bodies into the fire of uncomfortable situations. Life is not meant to be easy. We must stop running from uncomfortable or hard situations and instead lean into them. We must welcome the darkness to grow, we must endure to enhance our ability. The sooner we accept life is hard, the quicker we will be able to find actual comfort in our situations.