Terry-Dayne and I spent an hour on Sunday night rearranging the furniture in my bedroom. It felt exciting, almost as if it was a brand new space again, and sitting in my bed writing this, I am constantly looking around admiring all the new angles I had never seen before. Very pleased and slightly tired, I am ready to fall into my old familiar bed that has just found a different spot, but something Terry-Dayne said can’t seem to leave me. “Sometimes we need to change something. Just make sure it is the right thing.”

I sit in this thought for a little bit. His words seemed prophetic. We all know that uncomfortable feeling, where nothing seems to fit. Our clothes, our routines, our jobs, and even our relationships. We wiggle around here and there, but nothing in its current state is working. The flow that we once had, is completely gone. Therefore, we jump to the next conclusion; something has to shift. We never like to endure the feeling of discomfort, so we quickly jump to conclusions, sometimes without much reason at all, other than to escape the discomfort of the feeling uncomfortable.

This can be dangerous. We get into a panic mode, and we all know that panicked decisions are never the best. Why is it that we fear discomfort? I don’t think the answer to this question is entirely clear. But we all seem to have this strange idea that we need to have everything figured out. That every moment in our lives need to be organized and in control.

Well, that sounds boring. And slightly unrealistic.

In yoga, without sitting in the discomfort of a position, without discovering it’s difficult spots and sometimes painful sensations, it never becomes comfortable. Instead of breathing through the hard bits, we change to another position, that we already know we are good at. This is, in many senses, giving up. Don’t waste time doing the things you have already mastered. How do we learn, grow and discover more about ourselves unless we take what makes us uncomfortable and stare at it for a bit. It is not enjoyable by any means, but most of the time, it brings us clarity. We have dealt with something, instead of sweeping it under the rug for it to come up at another, probably more inconvenient time. Once understanding the true way of things, which can take more time and patience than you would like, we can begin to make meaningful and mindful change in our lives.

And sometimes, all you need is to put your bed in a different spot, and your whole perspective change. Right next to me, a new space has opened up in my own room, that I didn’t even know was there. Really, its all about how you look at things.