March 24, 2014
Comfort
Beware of comfort.
Sure, it feels good.
Sure, you deserve it.
But because it feels good, comfort tends to interfere with more important things.
Honesty. Courage. Loyalty. Love. Growth. All require us to move beyond comfort.
Then too, because it feels good, comfort is addictive. The more you have, the more you want. Eventually that’s all you want. Or, if you’re not careful, all you can tolerate.
Finally, love of comfort is the royal road to control-seeking, especially the dysfunctional kind.
It sends you chasing the illusion that you can make things as you want them to be. Which stops you from learning to live with things as they are.
So sure, enjoy comfort when you can.
It feels good.
And you deserve it. Of course you do.
Just beware of it too.
March 24th, 2014 at 8:09 pm
So true!! Enjoy your posts!!
March 24th, 2014 at 8:12 pm
Thanks. 🙂 I was afraid this one might bum people out.
March 24th, 2014 at 9:07 pm
So, when is it appropriate to seek and accept comfort and when do we need to move beyond it?
March 24th, 2014 at 10:23 pm
Hard to say, without a context. (Though there are plenty of religions and philosophies willing to give it a try.) I wrote this mainly to make the point that what feels good isn’t always good for us, and that pursuing comfort above all else tends to lead to a underdeveloped life.
March 24th, 2014 at 11:26 pm
Steve,
Thank you so much for this. It’s something that I have been learning but have lacked the words to describe. Your ability to so concisely and clearly illuminate difficult concepts just amazes me (and stirs a deep envy 😀 ). I posted a link on the Psychcafe.ca forums as I think it will help a lot of people. Keep up the good work! AG
March 25th, 2014 at 7:09 am
Thanks, AG. Kind of you to say so. 🙂
May 14th, 2014 at 12:22 am
[…] here lately — compulsive apologizing (Apology), self-editing (Friends), comfort-seeking (Comfort), self-blame (All my fault), persevorating (Gum), reenacting old battles (Dandelion fights), […]
May 24th, 2014 at 8:39 am
[…] in Monkeytraps — compulsive apologizing (Apology), self-editing (Friends), comfort-seeking (Comfort), self-blame (All my fault), persevorating (Gum), reenacting old battles (Dandelion fights), […]
May 30th, 2016 at 12:26 pm
[…] I’ve written about here in the past — compulsive apologizing (Apology), , comfort-seeking (Comfort), self-editing (Friends), self-blame (All my fault), persevorating (Gum), reenacting old battles […]