That famous Stoic athlete-framed mindset of “harden the fuck up” is pure misdirection.
Take a spoonful of cement and get on with it is the rhetorical philosophy that can get us into real trouble.
It’s basically saying that we should remain unconscious of discomfort, ignore it, push it away.
That is weakness, not strength!
You are unconsciously informing yourself that you don’t have what it takes to feel what is arising in this process. Now the movement is upwards into your head.
This is a physical body-orientated process. You gotta get out of your head and into your body. So, the trick is to soften downwards rather than harden upwards…
We need to build the capacity to soften into the suck.
That softening is the yes you bring to what’s happening. Furthermore, now you are allowing yourself to remain with the feelings in your body, you are staying engaged.
We have this idea that presence is a product of the mind and that idea is negating your body.
Let me tell you, your vagrant thoughts are not helping you drive those pedals, it’s your full, felt sense of engagement that’s doing that.
You need to soften down against the discomfort you feel in your body, relax, let yourself pour like a fluid into the hurt.
Feel it, get real with it. Don’t create stories or associations.
That hurt is your teacher, it’s your development accepted or denied.
Disassociation is denial, harden up is brittle, it will only take you as far as you can think…
You are so much more than that.
Gilesy