E70 Michael: 3 Waves of Discomfort and How to Ride Them

What if discomfort is not something happening to you — but something happening for you?

In this solo episode, Michael Abramson brings a genuinely practical and honest conversation about one of the most universal experiences on the conscious evolution journey — discomfort. Drawing from two weeks of his own heavy waves, his work with men in mentoring and sacred circles, and years of learning to stop running from what feels uncomfortable, Michael unpacks what discomfort actually is, what it is trying to show you and how to meet it in a completely different way.

In this episode:

• Why discomfort is a sign something is changing for your higher good — not a sign something is wrong
• The three waves of discomfort — emotional, identity and uncertainty — and what each one is teaching
• The expansion wave — the tsunami of all discomfort — and why it signals your next level
• Why Michael said "Hi, Discomfort, I see you" this morning — and what shifted
• How to observe discomfort without becoming it
• Why fighting discomfort keeps you looping — and what surrender actually means
• The surfing metaphor — paddling through waves until you learn to ride them
• Four powerful questions to ask yourself when discomfort arises
• Why changing your external environment is a legitimate tool for shifting internal states
• How discomfort builds character, resilience and the muscle of your greatest version
• What Michael shares in his monthly Conscious Evolved Man circle and one-on-one mentoring

🌹 If discomfort has been pulling you under — this episode will show you how to ride the wave instead.

Transcript

Surfing As A Discomfort Lesson

Meet Discomfort With Awareness

Set Your Morning Mind

Change Your Environment To Break Loops

Four Waves Of Discomfort

Questions That Reveal The Gift

Choose Response Over Reaction

Invitation To Connect And Close

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Welcome to the Ascension Alchemist Podcast. This is your host, Michael Abramson, and today is my solo episode, which I welcome you from the fullness of my heart. As always, we focus on this program of embodying and aligning to our divine design, really in becoming the fullest expression of our God-given self. And today I'm very excited to speak on a powerful topic in navigating through the waves of discomfort. For how many of you are feeling right now these interesting days of discomfort, heaviness, sometimes feeling a little confused, sometimes, sometimes even just questioning where am I on my journey of life? Because what I've been noticing is this amazing spring cleaning of releasing the old, moving into my true essence. And sometimes it feels a little sticky. Sometimes it feels like I'm not so sure what tomorrow's going to bring because I'm kind of still letting go of that old which is holding on to me, yet this new is ready or true essence is ready to come forward. And that is why today I'm so excited just to bring forth this navigation, this movement as we go through this discomfort. Because what happens if discomfort is actually a whole new energy that we've never really embraced. You know, I feel like we really have to recognize that discomfort is part of our journey. And to move through discomfort is really the becoming of who and how we go through life. You know, I remember surfing, and when I used to paddle out through these waves, there'd be moments where I would just get hit one after the other if there was a big swell, and I could feel this huge discomfort rise because it wasn't fun, it wasn't enjoyable in my first years of learning because whether the wave threw me down, whether I got caught in sets, and I just kept feeling this uncomfortable nature of just trying to paddle through these waves of discomfort. Until one day I started to embrace it and saying, okay, what happens if discomfort is not happening to me, but it's happening for me? And that's where I really want to start this podcast today, because I feel like we have to really drop deep and look at what the truth of discomfort is. Because sometimes we've judged discomfort as something that's bad, something that's wrong. But what happens if discomfort is actually a sign that something is changing for your higher good? I know myself, many times it's been easy to stay in this comfort zone and just be in this kind of steady, eddy, in-the-box living, which of course society and our school program programming helped us stay in that level. Yet after a while, when there's this inner growth and there's this great change, discomfort starts to happen. And so what I've recognized, the truth of discomfort, is it's about expanding, growing, and rising beyond who you thought you were, and now what you really are, into the growth and expansion of yourself. You know, what I really see what discomfort helps us in many ways is it starts to show us where our strengths are and where our weaknesses are without judgment. You know, it allows us to practice, you know, how patient and perseverant we can be through the resilience of moving through it. And there's all different levels. And what happens if discomfort is building our character? It's allowing us to say, wow, you know, when I was younger, when I was judged, I was really, really uncomfortable. But now as I start to discern more and judge less, discomfort's starting to fall away from me where I don't have to become it. I could just become aware of it. And so it's really been an interesting theme because literally, I would say the past two weeks, I've really felt uncomfortable. I felt this discomfort in me. Almost like, have you ever seen like when those older aspects are coming up and once again you're witnessing them? And that voice of dissatisfaction, or that voice of disappointment, or that voice of complaint. I call them little characters, like uh-oh, here comes Mr. Self-sabotage that wants to come around, here comes Mr. Negative. And have you ever noticed when they are really loud, when that discomfort is really just coming at you full force and effect? For me, I've recognized it's usually when I'm really tired, or I've overextended myself, or I'm noticing pain in my body that the voice gets real loud, especially in the morning when I first wake up and all of a sudden all those characters are like on a team pulling my strings and seeing, how are you going to go through this discomfort today? But what happens if we meet discomfort in a whole new way? And that's what I'm excited to share because I feel all of us, one way or another, have to go through discomfort. And I feel by having these conversations about discomfort opens up the opportunity just to bring a little levity to it, energy that allows us to say discomfort doesn't have to fully rule our lives. Because what would happen, for example, and even now, if you can imagine something uncomfortable in your life or discomfort that's moving through, it could be external, it could be uncomfortable, it could be internal. Whatever discomfort, imagine it now. And what happens if the first thing you do, you just bring awareness to it, you just bring pure awareness of this discomfort by observing it, being the witness to it. Because what I've learned and what I've seen is when I observe it, or I'm just witnessing this discomfort, then I'm not becoming it. Like this morning when I woke up, I had this aching back pain and this exhaustion because it's been just a very busy past couple weeks. And so when I went into meditation and came out, I finally just started to do something I've never done before. And I said, Hi, Discomfort, I see you. And I literally start to have a conversation with it by making it a third person, drawing awareness to it, observing it, and then literally having a conversation with, okay, Discomfort, I see you. And right when I start to observe, witness, and talk to it, I then allowed myself to see I am not discomfort. It's just a part that's in my field, and now I have a choice. I have a decision. Whether I want to give my attention and focus to discomfort in a negative way, which has been a past pattern, or if I just look at it as a bystander. Because what would happen if you were to meet discomfort in a whole new relationship? Now, the mind and the ego may fight this because we have that old belief it's not okay to feel not okay. And discomfort loves that. Because all of a sudden, when we're not feeling comfortable, what starts to peek in? The fears, the stress, the worry. I feel like it's like this whole team, this whole team that's ready to come in to peel back all the vulnerabilities within us, whether it's those old thoughts that we haven't quite cleared yet, those old worries and stress, and they all come in as like gangsters wanting to like come in as a huge level to like take over. Yet what would happen if you could just step back and say, they don't have to take the wheel. They don't have to take over and lead the story. I can actually step back and observe them and just meet them. I can say hello to them, I can honor them, I can respect them, but I can start to create a new relationship with them. Because in the past, I believe when discomforts come up, we've easily judged it, we wanted to fix it, or run away from it, or escape from it, and try to do our best to flip the script. Yet what happens if all of a sudden discomfort is coming up because we're on a whole new edge to become the greatest version of ourselves, to really understand the trueness of our divine design. And here is another chapter of our story to meet a level of resistance that we haven't quite cleared before. You know, one area that I feel that I've really started to focus on, and this may be helpful for all of you, is starting the morning with a clear mind. And when I say clear mind, setting your mind for the intention that you want to create. Because if you don't set that mind through the vibration of joy or happiness or peace, if you don't calibrate yourself, then something else is gonna set your mind. And usually those other things that want to set your mind are uncomfortable. Those are usually the unresolved problems, the fears, the stresses, the fires that we have to put out, and they start to take control. They start to fill ourselves up with all of these stories, and then somehow we start the morning and it goes through the whole day. And what are we doing? We're fighting it, we're resisting it, we're projecting it upon our friends, our family. But you know what? I've really come to understand after five decades is I don't have to fight discomfort anymore. We don't have to fight discomfort anymore because it's a choice point. But I can meet it in a whole new way. I can have a different response to discomfort versus a reaction, because in creating a new relation to relationship to it, I can now meet it and just surrender to discomfort. And when I say surrender, not giving power to it, not losing, but not choosing to fight it. Because it sometimes hooks you in, and without realizing it, we're in this uncomfortable, discomfort, processing loop that sometimes we can't get out. Just the other day, I was working with a dear brother and the mentoring that I do, and he said, You know, I have the hardest time that when I get uncomfortable or I get angry and I get upset and I'm looping, how do I get out? And I said, That's a really good question because once we're in it, that dwelling and processing is a challenging situation. It's so uncomfortable that it feels like it's almost impossible. So I said, you know, what would happen if you just chose to change the environment you're in? What would happen if right now, like turning a channel as you would see on TV from like the news to a nature channel, you put yourself out into nature, you bring yourself to the present moment, you allow yourself to exercise, you give a whole new mode to your external environment to help shift the internal because they both reflect on the other. So what would happen if we start to understand and realize that discomfort is actually elevating ourselves to the greatest version of who we are, and to understand that I feel like we have to even go deeper. And what I always look at is what are these ways of discomfort? Because the more I can find greater awareness to them, I'm starting to realize that it provides a way to move through them easier. And what I love about these podcasts, I feel we get to share our stories, we get to share our experiences, and we get to like have these wonderful conversations that bring greater levels of consciousness. That's what I appreciate, and and definitely believe that that it gives the opportunity just to step back and observe it in a way that maybe we haven't done before. But I'd like to ask the audience when discomfort comes to you, how do you deal with it? What does it usually do to you? Because what I personally see in these waves of discomfort is understanding what they are. I know when there's these emotional waves of discomfort, they can form in anxiety, stress, worry, and they seem to be very heavy. So if I'm starting to see these heaviness come to me, I choose to shift into areas of peace and lightness to dissolve that density. But I also know there's these identity waves of discomfort. And I recognize within myself when I'm moving and outgrowing the older version of myself, there seems to be this disparity of discomfort because there's these waves of, like, well, who am I really? Because I'm moving from my old self, which is still attached to me, yet I'm moving into this new self that I want to be, but I'm in this in-between layer where the waves are like washing me back and forth. And then, of course, we can always look at the uncertainty waves of discomfort. Those are the waves where we don't know what's gonna happen. There's this uncertainty of like, okay, here I am. What's tomorrow gonna look like? How am I gonna get through that? And there's a lot of question. And sometimes it doesn't feel comfortable to be in a state of question because we like clarity. Clarity gives us security, it gives us safety. So what I what I find is in all these waves, it's really helping us move to what I find is the tsunami of all discomfort, are the expansion waves. Where you're stepping into something so much greater than who you are. I recognize this right now. I'm moving into larger levels of what life wants to bring me, and that's just creating so much discomfort. So, why am I saying this? Why is discomfort so important to bring this conversation? Because I really believe that life is about navigating through ease and peace, just like our heart rate, just like our blood flow, just like nature around, there's this flow. And when we move through this flow, it gives us the opportunity to see how we're actually doing, what we're allowing ourselves to see, whether we're hitting against the shore, rocks are falling upon us, and what we're doing, because discomfort doesn't feel good. And I feel there's this power that we get to really absorb when we embrace discomfort, especially when we don't escape from it. And I feel that's one of the greatest things that I saw in myself growing up is when there was discomfort, I would want to run away from it. I want to avoid it. But then I'm realizing the more I avoid it, it's gonna persist because we know what we resist will persist. And then I recognize by avoiding that discomfort within myself, that was just creating more delay in my growth. So I start to sit with it, and I recognize sitting with discomfort has allowed a greater level of strength, a level of trust, and a level of meeting it, meaning it in a way for the first time that I get to embrace it. So I have some questions for you about discomfort because in these days of incredible transformation, in these days where discomfort comes, I sat back this morning and I really meditate deep upon it. And these were the questions that came to me. I actually wrote them down. What is discomfort teaching me? And ask yourself, what is discomfort teaching me? Because what happens if it's showing something about yourself that's allowing you to see something that you really did embrace because we kept looking at discomfort as something negative. How is discomfort allowing me to grow? And really drop into that because sometimes we are so quick to react that we forget to see the gift behind discomfort and seeing what growing edges it's allowing us to take form. What am I personally learning from discomfort? Everything in life is an opportunity to grow and expand. And I recognize when I was younger, it was hard for me to see what I was learning because I was focusing more on the feeling and the hurt and the pain of discomfort until I realized I'm not my thoughts, I'm not my feelings, I'm not my emotions. They're just passing through me. What is discomfort helping me to see? And that was one that really drew some depth because there's many times in life I feel we're all moving through this chaos, this noise, this challenge. And because our body likes to be in a safe, comfortable place, we naturally avoid discomfort. Yet when it comes and we can really step far enough aback from it and allow ourselves to see what is discomfort helping me to see, then I feel it opens up what I see, the golden treasure chest of gifts that are here awaiting for us. And when we step back even further and see that these gifts of discomfort are allowing us to let go of the areas that no longer serve us, then we can welcome it. We can embrace it, we can actually celebrate it. Because what would happen if discomfort is actually guiding you, guiding you to embrace it so that each time that there is another level up, another expansion, that when discomfort comes, it communicates to you internally that something phenomenal is going to happen because now you're ascending to your next level of expansion, your next level of growth. That is why, in navigating through these waves of discomfort, what would happen if now we learn the strategy, the tools, and the ways that we choose to respond versus react. This is what I love to help people, whether it's in my one-on-one mentorship or whether I'm working with conscious evolved men, which I'll be having my next monthly online gathering tomorrow, Thursday, April 30th at 8 p.m. And so it's important that I see when we can really dive deep into some of these topics and some of these areas to not only understand, but to put them into action. One thing I'm very, very grateful for, my beloved, is. It's one thing to learn it. It's one thing to see it. It's one thing to embrace it. But how can we put it into action? And to me, I feel the greatest gift that discomfort allows us is to choose how are we going to put ourselves in action when discomfort arises? Because there's a choice point. We can fall back into old patterns. We can move into victim mode or survival mode. Or we could see that discomfort is a great teacher. An art to see how we can move in ease and grace and know that discomfort is just temporary because it too shall pass. And each time we master a new level of discomfort, then what used to affect us no longer controls us. And so that as there continues to be this acceleration of growth, discomfort can just be a mere marker of showing how far you've come and where you're going to go. And then ultimately, what I really embrace about this journey of navigating the waves of discomfort, what happens if now you're just surfing these waves? You're just riding the wave of discomfort and you're flowing through them versus allowing them to control you. Many times, including myself, I see that discomfort can weigh us down and stop us from moving forward. And we've been trained, conditioned, and placed into programs where when discomfort happens, we judge it as something is wrong or bad. Versus, could it be the greatest expansion and growth of life that you're now allowing yourself to go through? Because now you're welcoming discomfort. And that's what I chose to do this morning because as I welcomed it, it did not have the power to pull me in to what it felt like. I was aware of it, I observed it, I saw it, but I didn't allow it to control me. Because we are the masters of our own mind, body, emotions, and spirit. And the more we can cultivate our divine force within ourselves, then these discomforts don't have to play these heavier roles within us. So I welcome you on your journey today. When discomfort arises, see how you can meet it, becoming aware of it, observing it, choosing to respond versus react, and seeing how you can create a different stance from how you chose to do it the last time discomfort arose. For me, I love to learn. And I'm a student of life, as my mom was a teacher, and my dad brought great wisdom. And these are the areas that I love to bring forth because I feel the more we're able to master these areas, the more we begin to live life in ease, freedom, and peace. And when we can ride through these waves of discomfort, especially in these times where the chaos, the noise, and the outer conditions are so loud, then we're able to claim our sovereignty in the grace and freedom and truth who we are. So until next time, thank you all for joining Ascension Alchemist Podcast. And for all those that have questions, feel free to leave comments. For those that are interested in these monthly, online, conscious of all men's circles or private 101 mentorships. You can easily email me at info at ascensionalchemist.com. Otherwise, wishing you all a most beautiful and blessed day.