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I have an ounce of claustrophobia.
I do not care to be constricted within tight physical places or cramped metaphysical spaces.
I think of the biblical character of Jonah when I think about claustrophobia. I believe we sometimes confuse the stories of Pinnochio and Jonah. Pinnochio was swallowed by a whale. A spacious, fully furnished whale that--according to the Disney version--had recently devoured a schooner with all of its provisions. Jonah was swallowed by a fish. It was not a good experience for either Jonah or the fish. Jonah thought he had been swallowed by death itself; the fish, like many parishioners through the ages, found the preacher most disagreeable and offensive, and it surely did everything possible to be rid of him.
Jonah's near-death experience was not unlike returning to the womb. For a fetus, the womb is a place of warmth and nurture. But men and women were not meant to live their entire lives in the dark, in a fetal position.
Not that we don't try.
We do our best to insulate ourselves from the fear, the failure, and the general funkiness of life. We withhold love and trust. We excuse ourselves from worthy pursuits. We fear change as much as claustrophobia. In sum, we resist anything that might discomfort us. Why? Because we mistakenly interpret any discomfort as a threat.
In reality, the fear, the failure, and the general funkiness of life is evidence that we are stretching our limbs. Courageously, faithfully, responding to the longings of our spirit within to be more expansive, to experience life more fully--to see, to hear, to smell, to touch, to taste.
How might you reframe discomfort as something other than a threat? Might it be possible to perceive discomfort as an invitation to get curious around an event or your reaction to the event?
Where have you previously insulated yourself from the fear, the failure, and the general funkiness of life? What has it cost you? Has the price been worth it?
What would it look like to assume a fetal position, to feel in your body the places and spaces of conflict between safety and stretching, and to physically unfold and extend your limbs?
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