A perennial pursuit in the human experience appears a desire to make life more comfortable. With an aptitude for technology and curiosity, people have continued creating new devices to help assist in the occurrence of life. For centuries community life stayed essentially the same, a viking transported from 900AD to 1400 wouldn’t have a difficult time adjusting to their new epoch. In the contemporary world however, the elapsed time between ones birth and that of their grandchildren sees enormous societal change.
Our technological inclined society has given us many benefits, from global connectivity to advancement in health care to the answer of any question in the palm of one’s hand, yet has the demand for extra comfort made us happier or more reliant on it? Does having nicer materials and tools provide us added contentment compared to our ancestors? If the comfortability we posses today were taken away indignant citizens are assured, but no growth comes without a degree of discomfort and the endured strain can act in contouring the depth of ones character.
Weak Feet
Living in modern society we are gifted goods and services reserved only for Kings and Queens of previous generations; with merely a few clicks just about anything desired can arrived to a location of our choosing. As science and technology have continued expounding new ways to “improve” life, tools have become increasingly apt and personalized, giving individuals freedoms considered ludicrous only decades ago.
Growing up in a world dominated by personalization and instantaneous feedback people have come to expect a certain level of comfortability, feeling desolate without the tentacles of Wi-Fi or a room without air-conditioning. The ability to access infinite amounts of information and having body temperature externally regulated are foundational in the contemporary world. Because their presence is anticipated we are disgruntled when they are absent.
In society this expectation of comfort brews notions of annoyance when not fulfilled; one may be flying thousands of feet above land in a massive metal machine, but if the Wi-Fi doesn’t work the whole operation is inadequate. These incidences have enough gravity over the mind to change mood and behaviour.
The supplementary comfort entices many to be removed from others, isolating themselves in security so serenity is not interfered with. This mindset is now commonplace throughout society, the connective foundations underpinning the communal life diminished as intangible reality takes hegemony.
In comfort people morph into the mould provided for them and it becoming difficult to dislodge them. It cannot be said there is an innate wrong seeking comfort (animals too pursue the pleasure of coziness), however an excess engenders a generation weaker, softer, fatter, angrier and more anxious than the previous. Those walking barefoot have the toughest feet, others may be provided the steadiness of shoes though when they’re removed their weakness is exposed.
Straining for Growth
Opposed to the insular world of comfort, discomfort is the frontier of the extreme, the edge of safety where chaos begins and opportunity arises. In modern civilization comfort becomes a backdrop for base understanding of reality and, because people aren’t required to test their limitations, they are reluctant to experience what else is on offer.
One may have had a Michelin Star dinner but the best meal they’ll ever have is the one pulling them from the edge of starvation; the best shower not after a day spent on the beach but after trudging for hours in the snow; the best beer after hiking a mountain not the third on your evening out. No matter how much material an individual can amass the feeling of comfort has its parameters, and it is only as powerful as it’s proximity to distress.
Discomfort extracts individuals from their security and forces them to deal with what’s being confronted, to not be lulled by ease but strained by adversity. The development of muscle is analogous to the maturation of an individual; if they are able to go through strain and give the muscle time to heal it will grow bigger and stronger. Without the strain muscles begin to atrophy, and although one may get implants to cover their inadequacies it’s only a superficial façade. What makes discomfort worthwhile is the suffering, specifically the suffering people elect to accept for the benefit of something greater.
Being involved with a discomfortable situation also invokes a sense of mindfulness about life, time and the perennial flux of moments. When an ailment is impeding on someone they are forced to converse with their conscious about the distress. In these challenging times many people must confront demons and subdue influence on their mental state. After an encounter of such intensity one will come to appreciate hardship as the pressure necessary to spawn a glistering diamond.
There is no doubt adversity can also breed anger and resentment, but these emotions are not one-dimensional and can be channelled to positive avenues. When one is only surrounded by comfort they can never use the flames of vexation to reignite vision of the core self.
There is nothing wrong with enjoying comfort, albeit an excess of anything generates problems and an overdose of easiness manufactures more problems than it solves. People require hardship, adversity and failure to grow, learn and develop. Without these people are inadequate in testing their character, inept in discovering who they are enhancing the risk of being swallowed by the existential vacuum. Discomfort draws sonorous gratitude for what’s valuable in one’s life – when the world is seen with expectation not appreciation cosmic reverence is numbed, desensitising an authentic understanding of one’s individual essence.
Image Source: Tomasz Alen Kopera
The Contemporary Human 