'Comfort' Articles
Comfort is both a great good, and one of the worst evils we face. It’s a natural cycle, and has two sides to it. The stasis threshold, which is the “rest” phase, and the growth threshold. Trying to relax is stress, but it’s “eustress” or physical change that feeds well being. Beyond the rest threshold it becomes “distress” or change that negatively impacts function. Excessive rest leads to atrophy, and distresses the body, and mind. It‘s the same with the growth threshold, but we can reclaim our awareness of our own cycle, and thus enhance our own capacity to adapt.
“As unrefined and basic as an animal’s emotional equipment may be, it is not insensitive to freedom. Somewhere in the archives of crudest instinct is recorded the truth that it is better to be endangered and free than captive and comfortable.” Tom Robbins (American Novelist. b.1936)
“In times of great stress or adversity, it’s always best to keep busy, to plow your anger and your energy into something positive.” Lee Iacocca
“Over the years your bodies become walking autobiographies, telling friends and strangers alike of the minor and major stresses of your lives.” Marilyn Ferguson
Comfort Domains
Comfort is both a good thing, and perhaps one of our greatest evils also. We tend to neglect our instincts with comfort. We mistake comfort for ease, and we can be totally at ease but not comfortable. In that case, people tend to just suffer the stress to keep the ease. Comfort has two domains: the stasis threshold, which is the “rest” phase, and the growth threshold. People tend to neglect the growth threshold, and this does throw the stasis threshold out of wack. You rest, but you aren’t recharged. The comfort of the routine, even when it’s a stressful routine?… Seek More
Dissed Rest
I practice Vipassana meditation, and when I’m with fellow mediators they say they would like to experience how relaxed I appear. I tell them, that’s only an appearance. That I’m just observing my spasming back and legs that want to move. My body is completely not at rest. That’s a good thing to tell them, even if what they saw was literally true for them it isn’t true, and telling them so would be the truth one way or the other. You have a bad back? It’s not a bad back. It’s my mind in protest. I can perhaps relate… Seek More
Mystery of Comfort
I heard a talk by someone who has become hated in the medical industry. Through freedom of information act he uncovered that anti-depressants are as useful as placebos, and they have the tests to show it. Is there such a thing as a poison placebo, like if somebody thinks a vile of water would kill them, it does? Yes, it’s been proven, and it can go farther. There was a man found dead, because he was trapped in what he knew to be a freezer car on a train. He had all the marks of having frozen to death. The… Seek More
Too Much Rest
We all seek comfort. Cling to it in the face of what we are told, and we often tell ourselves it is a cold cruel world. It can seem like life’s only saving grace, but comfort is both a great good, and also potentially one of the worst evils we face. It’s a natural cycle and has two sides to it. The comfort zone is hard to escape. Oh it is, and have you ever really wanted to escape it? We all know of rest/relaxation, and supposedly being rested and relaxed is a very great good. But I will say… Seek More
Self Experience
I find that rest and growth come in cycles. As if spirit is directing all sorts of synchronicity, and then once the information has been received the rest begins to integrate what was taken in. Yes, indeed. I have called it the breath of the spirit, but our “self knowledge” often misdirects the growth cycle of comfort. For self knowledge to be knowledge in the strictest sense, it has to remain at rest, static. This is a negative rest, and is what people are talking about when they say they can’t get out of their comfort zone. People will sacrifice… Seek More
Innocence in Awareness
You know the healing power of a baby!? It is big! Yes. Babies are examples of human nature in its pure form. Taoism says this. Buddhism says this though less bluntly. Many of the pagan faiths have the divine child symbolism which was also taken up by Christianity, and many see the “Christ child” as Christianity’s most sacred symbol. The child is praised for being “at rest” as if this is the first greatest holiness of spirit. Tell me, did he know any rest after? Do we call that innocence? We refer to the passion of the Christ for a… Seek More
Comfortably Numb
Where does our ego come in? Ego comes in because we attach to the supposed virtue of rest, of a narrowly defined peace, and feel we can claim spiritual success if we can say “I am this” even if it’s a very broad term produced by very vague thinking. We turn to traditions and give ourselves false comfort by saying “I know I am not ego”, and what do we learn just by declaring we are not ego, no matter how true that is? So if I understand correctly, the archetypal ego sentence would be ‘I am this-or-that’? Yes, that’s… Seek More
