Our mental muscles are just as important as our physical muscles in the world we live in today.
With stress at an all-time high the practice of mental resistance training is vital to building endurance and changing habits. Why? Because changing a habit is hard.
The key to success is learning how to tolerate the feeling of discomfort when making these changes.
Similar to physical resistance training, mental muscles work against a weight or external force (the discomfort of stress) to increase strength and endurance.
For most of us, our mental resistance muscle has atrophied over time. When it comes to our habits we often turn a blind eye to our impulses regardless of the consequences they bring because we don’t want to feel the discomfort caused by changing them.
Make no mistake, this exercise in resistance is no easy task. But over time and through repetition, the energy required to resist the same temptation lessens and the impulse becomes easier to confront and endure.
Our best chance for progress in this area is to implement strategies that help us tolerate the discomfort that comes as a natural consequence of change. We will start by using the process of desensitization.
Desensitization is a practice of accepting and reframing a negative emotional experience.
Acceptance is simply observing our discomfort with a sense of detachment. This allows us to ride the wave of emotion until it subsides.
Reframing is a bit more challenging and is based on challenging and changing the way a negative feeling is experienced. Doing so reframes the emotional experience with a more positive association so next time it doesn’t feel so hard to face.
Keep in mind, emotional discomfort is not the problem but how we react to it. Distress is common to the human experience and we don’t need to fear it or avoid it. Our charge is to name it + reframe it so it no longer has power to paralyze us in defeat.
“Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil. And he will flee from you.” (James 4:7)
- Notice what causes you discomfort and how you react to it.
- Use the acceptance and reframing techniques to endure the feeling of discomfort with a sense of detachment.
- Anchor yourself to the moment through prayer trusting the distress will eventually pass and you will be stronger next time around.
Prayer is just a conversation with God. Talk to Him today about anything that is causing you pain that feels too heavy to endure.
Be bold. Be brave. Be free.
Dori
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