Sitting With Discomfort

The mind has a funny way of pulling our attention away from what’s most important.

If our piano playing is going great, it might say “practicing is so much fun” or “I’m so glad I can play this well.” When that happens, it’s normal to want to continue doing what we’re doing.

On the other hand, if our piano playing is not so great, it might say “this is so boring”, or “that didn’t come out right…I need to do something differently.” Now, when this happens, we might be tempted to change what we’re doing.

If our goal is to improve our playing, we need to fix what we’re doing badly. But, if the mind is saying “change what you’re doing!”, there’s a conflict.

That’s because you can’t fix a problem if you’re not willing to sit with the problem. If you change the subject every time the problem shows up, you will learn nothing about the problem. However, if you can sit with it, you might be amazed at what reveals itself.

This is the highest leverage point you have in your practicing:

Sitting with discomfort.