Columnist Dan Abernathy.

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It’s not that I’m totally rebelling against the ways of now, but I just can’t seem to find many ways that feel as good as the ways of then. I have found a weathered path and state of independent thinking and awareness that have become my now. I came to a crossroads and followed the high vibrational path of positivity. This is the chosen route. This direction and knowledge protect and keep me in my realm.

I no longer allow myself to become uncomfortable for the comfort of others. Being uncomfortable for others is not being true to yourself. Not being true to yourself is not a platform to belong to, or to even be around other people.

Being uncomfortable is an emotion and feeling that no one likes to experience. These could be the painful feelings of embarrassment, guilt, shame and hurt. The problem of labeling these emotions is when we do feel them, we tend to judge them, but may still not want to explore them. So we push them away and minimize them or look for an easy way out.

Once you start to label your experiences and emotions as comfortable or uncomfortable, you can then begin to learn what they are telling you. Emotions should be like a compass pointing you in the right direction. Comfort tells you that you should keep doing what you’re doing, while discomfort tells you that something has gone against your values.

As you expand your emotional linguistics, you start labeling your emotions as comfortable or uncomfortable. This should become a guide to how you are living; when someone asks you how you are feeling you should not hesitate to answer honestly.

How do you respond when someone asks how you are feeling? The answer should be in tune with sharing what you are truly feeling. Creating a deeper emotional vocabulary and connecting this new vocabulary to all physical sensations without the fear of being truthful, is being truthful to yourself.

When you are uncomfortable in any situation, you should remove yourself from it. This skill can easily be learned and implemented by just taking a few moments to become in tune with your true feelings and connecting them with your true self.

We all experience the emotions of comfort and discomfort differently so what is true for you might be different for someone else. Sadly, we must still protect the true person we are. Self-protection and preservation have always been and undoubtedly always will be needed. In the defense of self, I apply the protection of, “choice and situation.”

I live by choice. I have no control of any situation, but my own. Your situation, or the influences in your setting, are completely out of my power and jurisdiction.

What I do have is a choice. I can choose to be involved and subjected to the many different elements that may be included in your situation, or I can choose to turn and walk away. I do not have to be involved, even if I cannot physically leave the area, I can still depart. I can retreat to my own place while circumnavigating your situation. In my mind, I can travel there freely until I can physically turn and walk away.

This is self-preservation. Walking away will keep you completely clear of the uncomfortable negativity and drama that so many have welcomed into their space. These people have seemingly found comfort and enjoyment floundering in this destructive quagmire.

There is no weakness in walking away. Walking away from the situation has everything to do with strength. We walk away because the situation has no value or is a source of deterioration of who we are. It is not because we have a higher value and worth, but because we realize that our own way is of peace and tranquility to who we are. We can observe what is and become part of it, what is happening, or we can keep our comfort and walk away.

Pay no attention to what does not concern you, as it has no concern. When you become involved in the beliefs and desires of other people, you are stepping into a confusing purposeless way, which in most cases is not part of your self-alignment.

We all understand, though many ignore the fact, that all things, including ourselves, are not permanent. At best, all that is on this level is temporary, meaning life is short. Life’s brevity is why it makes no sense to spend so much time on the Internet.

So many are trying to be a powerful influence on social media, arguing with strangers about politics and everything they disagree over. At the same time, they expect you to accept what they are putting forth as a type of doctrine. They also no longer tolerate the fact that we all have different ways and opinions.

What you will also see by evoking choice and situation is that all of those who surround you may find your new comfort uncomfortable and start leaving your circle. Except this, and find no discomfort or loss, as the ones in your closest inner circle will stay close.

We advance through life presuming that someday everything will make perfect sense. For today, however, it might be better to just laugh at the messy confusion and keep reminding ourselves that there is a reason why everything happens. So today, I snicker with enthusiastic potency as I can no longer be uncomfortable for the comfort of someone else. - dbA

You can find more of the unfiltered insight and the Art of Dan Abernathy at www.contributechaos.com.