Sitting with discomfort is a skill

What’s your typical response when you start to feel uncomfortable in your body or in a conversation or when you notice your deep emotions?

Developing our capacity to sit in the discomfort of uncertainty is a necessary skill for this moment in history. Given the world, this includes learning how to cycle between joy and grief pretty regularly. I see this in my climate work in the Fort Collins community, folks want to jump to solutions or what to do, which would bypass the important inner work of anger, grief, heartbreak, all because they feel the discomfort, sometimes immensely.

Additionally, there is a lot of discomfort of the unknown in the transition phase of growth, which makes me think about my Creative Cocooning group. In our third week we are focused on releasing fears and old habits as we wrap ourselves in our creative cocoon. Choosing your creative purpose everyday is a matter of making sometimes uncomfortable decisions. Discomfort. It’s there.

Last week, I talked about the messy middle as a place for possibilities. Through all my work at the individual, organizational, and community levels, this skill set of sitting with the discomfort in the messy middle is the only way I can see us moving forward to nurture wholeness and collective good in the world. It’s a skill set within the competency of resilience (again, adapt and transform, not toxic bounce back).

I think about this A LOT. Discomfort. Capacity. Rebuilding. Unlearning.

For myself. For raising kids in this world. For working with leaders and teams. For building community. One thing I’ve learned is that in this discomfort there can be resistance and pushback while also dotted with moments of critical hope and meaning. It’s not easy, but you can do it with more ease when you have guidance and when someone is scaffolding the skill building with you. This is my Resilient Teams work.

Mentors and community are critical. That’s why I named my coaching process and programs - mentorship coaching - it’s so much about being someone who can walk with you because I’m also in the work and I’ve been there. And that’s why there is always a component of our work together that’s in community with other folks doing their journey.

Do you want to grow your skills at navigating and leading through the messy middle? Imagine yourself as a grief-informed leader who can hold space for others without taking it on or carrying it. Book a connection call with me to discuss how we can collaborate to build resilient leadership for yourself and your teams.