Owweee ….Discomfort triggers the most primal part of our brain, the reptilian brain responsible for survival, located in the cerebellum of the brain stem. We are hardwired to avoid discomfort, lest we die in the process. For some of us it takes retraining our brain, creating new neural networks – “what fires together wires together” – to be able to move into the prefrontal neocortex, the more evolved part of the brain that supports judgement, awareness and compassion.
More than at any time in the history of humans we want our neocortex online, to see the discomfort and pain as a messenger with good news. It is alerting us to something that does not fit our value system, a trigger that can cause us to stay the same or evolve.
As we approach the new decade beginning 2020, we are facing the reality of a massive change in the order of things. Terry Patten, author of A New Republic of the Heart: An Ethos for Revolutionaries, says “our soft consumerist lifestyles will have to change…life as we have known it will be interrupted.”
A few years ago I made a little pact with myself not to buy anything new, for a whole year. It was one of the most liberating things I’ve done. After reading Sarah Wilson’s book, This One Wild and Precious Life, this was a small starting point to a bigger awakening; apathy and fear.
Then came an avalanche of discomfort when I discovered the work of Jem Bendell, and his 4R’s of Deep Adaptation – relinquishment, reconciliation, restoration, resilience – in which the sustainability leader talks about “the uneven ending to our current means of sustenance, shelter, security, pleasure, identity and meaning.” It was quickly followed by the essay from Catherine Ingram, Facing Extinction where I could no longer be in denial of discomfort, apathy and fear. A ton of rocks had landed on my head.
origin of the word apathy
early 17th century: from French apathie, via Latin from Greek apatheia, from apathēs ‘without feeling’, from a- ‘without’ + pathos ‘suffering’
an unwillingness to feel the fear of suffering
Joanna Macy
If you’re game to go deeper into discomfort try these 4 questions that Joanna Macy posed in her teachings, The Work that Reconnects. Apply them to the climate crisis or anything that is alive in you now. Note the sensations that arise in your body, their texture and weight. Give time to befriend them and create space for them to exist inside you.
- When I look at what we are doing to the natural world what breaks my heart is…?
- When I see what’s happening to human society, what breaks my heart is…?
- When I look at how I might have contributed to this mess, what breaks my heart is…?
- If I could access all the power that there is for me coming through the web of life, the one thing I would do for the sake of my world is….
Note: the steps we take should be modest ones but should involve some risk to our mental, emotional and social comfort.
