Challenges

Challenges In Depth

To live comfortably is a joy but to grow is divine

The more one lives comfortably, the less one will feel the need to change their life. After all, if one is already content with how one is doing in life, why bother doing more?

When we live in our comfort zones, we can live like a frog in a well. The frog may think that it's happy to have such a wide space to itself, not realizing the wonders that are waiting to be discovered outside of its world. 

And likewise, when we live in the same way every day, we can become normalized to the level of happiness we experience from day to day. We can fall into the belief that there are peaks to our happiness—upper limits that cannot be traversed— because that's what we know about our limited experience of the world. 

However, it's only when one does something different that one can feel differently about the world and see it differently. And to do so, one needs to step outside of one's comfort zone into territories that one is not familiar with. It is only then one can experience something new—even happiness that is beyond what one knows. 

Where can we find challenging experiences?

Challenging experiences are experiences that will always lie outside of one's comfort zone.

Challenging experiences are experiences that can bring unhappiness and pain into one's life, thus, the mind can think that it's counterintuitive to to step into such dark experiences.

And...why should I do something that is painful?

Although it's true that challenging experiences can be painful, sometimes even traumatizing, but it's by going through challenging experiences and overcoming them that one will be able to open doors to even greater happiness. 

Realize that going towards challenging experiences is like reaching for the dumbells to train in the gym. You know that it's going to be painful, but through the somewhat suffering experience, you will come out even stronger than before.

But, if one does nothing to challenge oneself, nothing will change; one will simply remain in the same state as before. 

So, to transform oneself, one can go towards challenging experiences. 

What are challenging experiences exactly?

Experiences are challenging when they can bring out the suffering states of the mind within. So, these will be the experiences that you fear going towards, experiences that can bring out the inner negativities, the fears, the impatience, and so forth.

So, challenging experiences can be seen as the suffering states of mind taking shape in the form of experiences. That is why one can be hesitant in approaching these kinds of experiences. Because by experiencing them, one will have no choice but to face the inner pain within.

And that is why it is important to go towards these experiences and learn to overcome them because the suffering states of the mind will always be the limiters to our experience of happiness. 

Realize how much more happiness you will experience once you release all your fears.

Realize how calm and peaceful your mind can be once you transform all your anger issues.

Realize how joyful life can be once you're no longer driven to rush all the time by your impatience.

Thus, the challenging experiences in life can offer one great opportunities to explore one's suffering states of the mind, providing one the training grounds to overcome them.

So, challenging experiences can be seen as the hidden treasures in life. Through investing time and effort into discovering, studying, and experiencing them, the rewards one can receive are plenty.

But to find these challenging experiences, one needs to first know oneself. One needs to know what experiences are challenging to them. 

Finding your challenging Experiences

Realize that going towards challenging experiences is not about going towards an experience that everyone agrees to be challenging or an experience that "appears" to be challenging. For instance, jumping off an airplane or doing some sort of extreme sport. It's about going towards experiences that "one" finds challenging. 

So, a challenging experience can be as simple as taking time to learn how to handle one's finances if one hates handling money. Or even learning to clean the house if one doesn't have the patience to do it. Or even something even simple as taking more breaks throughout the day. Or even simpler, waking up earlier than usual. 

It's always good to go towards challenging experiences that can be of benefit to oneself. For instance, all the experiences in the examples above are all constructive things that one can do for one's life, things that can improve the quality of one's life in the long-term. 

But it's really up to one what kinds of challenging experiences one wishes to face. It's just smarter to choose experiences that won't end up in injury or death!

Asking the following questions can help you to find your challenging experiences.

"What experiences do I find scary?"

"What tasks in life do I easily get frustrated about?"

"What experiences do I often avoid?"

"What are some of the things I have always held back from saying to others"

"What are some of the things I want to do in life but I never took the steps to do it"

"What are some of the habits I want to change?"

"What are some of the hobbies I've always wanted to try?"

"What can I do differently today?'

So, begin doing something challenging every day!

It can be about meeting new people, doing something different, even trying to forgive someone instead of always getting angry at them. 

The more you challenge yourself, the more insight you will gain into the dark states of your mind. And then you will realize just how much of your habit patterns have been driven by the fears and negativities within—that your comfort zone was more forced upon you by your suffering states of mind rather than freely chosen by you.

When you start to go outside of your comfort zone, it is then you will gradually realize just how vast and limitless the world of experiences is, and that your happiness will continue to expand as you work on releasing yourself from your fears, negativities, unhappiness. 

It is then you will truly be the Creator of your life, with the freedom to move to where you desire rather than being driven into corners (or wells!) by the suffering states of mind.