Stress…What Stress??

When you're in a situation you're uncomfortable with- be it a physical discomfort or pain within your own body, an argument with a friend that you can't let go of, a job or life path that has grown toxic, you know any of those events where you 'just feel stressed out', what do you tend to do? (Just asking for a friend ;P)
Do you fantasize? Wishing for better days ahead where the problem is simply gone and you can just return to living your perfect life? Do you disassociate from any acknowledgement of the problem? What stress? Where? Do you distract yourself and hope that when you come back from those last 6 episodes of Cobra Kai on Netflix that the situation has somehow healed itself? Mmmm, might as well finish the whole season- after all, I HAVE to see what's going to happen with Sensai Terry. Despair? Otherwise known as the Always and the Nevers- 'I'm always going to feel this way', or I'm never going to find love, happiness, success, etc.'
I'm sure most of us, at one time or another, have done one if not all of these, sometimes all at once.
And yes, sometimes, those techniques do work...in the short term, for a little bit...until surprise, surprise, problem resurfaces and we're wondering, Hey! Where did you come from?!? I thought you worked yourself out!

In music, dissonance can be something quite uncomfortable to listen to. For us, and for most living beings everywhere, there is an inherent desire for harmony. We, or at least our brains, don't like to experience dissonance. In its most primitive form, it's registered as a signal that something is off, wrong or dangerous and we must move away from the source of it otherwise we will be chased after, eaten, or killed. Yet, in its most complicated form, it is the buildup to the symphonic release, the moment before a first kiss, the experience of newness, anticipation, excitement.
But have you ever actually listened to the dissonance? Have you ever sat with an uncomfortable sound because there was no other way out? The guy on the subway who won't stop talking to the voices in his head and your noise-cancelling headphones have just died. The construction crew showing up to the building right outside your bedroom window at 6am. The 47 minutes of an MRI machine whirling and clanging around your body parts that may or may not be harboring suspicious cellular behavior. Often our first line of defense kicks in- get me the &%*$ out of this! (see above tools) But when that doesn't work, what then?
What happens when you stop resisting your direct experience of reality as it is presenting itself which, in this particular moment, might be slightly if not down-right dissonant, uncomfortable, or unbearable. How can you sink into the dissonance, the displeasure, the discomfort, the stress and listen for the more subtle nuances of what is being expressed?
Part of what often creates greater stress around a situation is our belief that it somehow needs to be otherwise. But what if it doesn't? What if it is leading you to something greater? Even if what is greater is only the realization and acknowledgement that there are other states for you to experience in this, your crazy human embodiment. Why we watch TV shows like Cobra Kai is why, in essence we're on this planet as human beings: to experience the ridiculous, the joyful, the sad, the angry, the pain, the mercy, the nostalgia, the stress AND its release (and yes, all of this can be found in Cobra Kai- right?!?)
And when it's time to do something else, you can do that too. When you allow yourself to feel fully into your experiences, you'll know that everything is always moving and shifting and transforming and that all we really have is our moment-to-moment superhuman ability to be human and to be aware of how precious (and often uncomfortable) our humanness actually is.