Our minds naturally hate change. Change makes us uncomfortable. Anything that involves risk or confrontation makes us tremble. We feel a sense of relief when we let our plans including any sort of risk fall through, and often times, we close off the options that make us feel uncomfortable before we even consider them. This is all to our own detriment.

Feeling uncomfortable is the surest sign you are growing. As bad as it feels, it is a good indicator. With that being said, there are plenty of ways to ease the discomfort it causes, in order to keep it from making you feel inadequate and filled with doubt. There are two general categories under which nearly all of these methods fall.

Find an Outlet

Write about what is making you uncomfortable. This is my favorite method and is perhaps the most useful out of these options. Writing about what is bothering you, even if you do not reach any sort of conclusion that seems helpful, is helpful. Writing helps to release tension, organize you thoughts, and expel negative emotions. Think of it as a massage for your mind.

Learn to love a certain form of exercise. It doesn’t have to be especially intense; it can just be walking. Walking outside on its own it shown to reduce stress. I would, however, recommend something more intense and competitive. Sports and exercises that motivate you to push past your limits will help you to become more comfortable in situations that fell, well, like death.

Just meditate already. This is a form of spiritual exercise that is not optional. The overabundance of assets awarded from meditating is inexcusable to pass by. By connecting to your breath for a few minutes a day, you can help relieve anxiety and stress, improve concentration and overall brain function, and become more appreciative of those around you. All of these assets make feelings of uneasiness easier to manage — they allow you not only to survive through discomfort but to thrive in it.

Simplify

Celebrate small victories. Often times when we make progress towards our goals, we negate it by overthinking it. We take one step forwards but two steps back. Progress is almost never fast, and it is much easier seen from the outside than from the inside. You may not even notice how much progress you have made, but others will. Speaking of others…

Stay connected with others. No one can be their best self on their own. You need to share your journey with people who support it. Connection to others makes each step towards your goals more fulfilling. Where you see stagnancy, they will, more often than not, see progress. From your perspective it is difficult to see how you have changed over the course of pursuing your goals — it appears complex — but for them it is much more simple.

Purge yourself of excess habits and excess goals. This is the most obvious method under the category of “simplify.” Your mind was not built to learn several new habits at once. Ridding yourself of habits that are not essential to your goals will help to ensure that those habits are actually adopted and sustained. Though your mind can pursue several goals at once, each goal depletes your willpower. Be certain that each goal you have is worth the amount of energy it expends to pursue.

Complete tasks you are good at. If your are feeling especially uneasy, one of the easiest ways to get back on track is to do something you’re good at. It’s a simple way to feel fulfilled and get back into a more positive mindset. Pursuing at goal that makes you uncomfortable can be frustrating, so you need to intersperse your efforts towards challenging pursuits with ones towards fun and easy goals — which brings me to the last and possibly most important method to get more comfortable.

Have fun — for heaven’s sake HAVE SOME FUN. It goes to show the state of our culture that I have to remind you to have fun, but I do. I was going to include this within the last paragraph until I realized: completing goals goes against the very nature of having fun. Fun is guilt-free pleasure without any specific goal in mind. The goal isn’t “to have fun” so much as it is to let go of the pressure of pursing any particular goal whatsoever.

Engaging in activities you have fun doing gets you back in a spontaneous, creative mindset. It puts you back into the moment, making you a freak at focusing on the task at hand — and this makes you great at feeling more comfortable in situations that would normally make you feel uncomfortable.