This Is What You Came For
Most weeks, I attend a HIIT (High-Intensity Interval Training) class at a local yoga Studio.
The name says it all—it’s intense.
It’s nonstop movement, mixing exercises between core, upper & lower body, and cardio.
The first time, I was overwhelmed. I kept thinking the challenging part would end, but it never did.
I left feeling great, so I went back.
I started understanding the structure, knowing when to pace myself and when to go all out.
It became something I look forward to.
I love how I feel afterward, but more than that, I appreciate how it gets me to a place I rarely access.
There are points in the workout when it’s painful, and I want it to end.
In these moments, I have to go somewhere in my mind. I must draw on all my mental and physical capacities to witness the pain and stay in it.
I have a mantra that helps me through these challenging times:
"This is what you came for."
I signed up for this! I come because it’s challenging.
It shows me my edges and teaches me how to be with discomfort.
It’s a Buddhist principle to open to pain rather than push it away. When we allow it to be there, sometimes, we go through it and find resources we didn’t know existed.
In his book The Will To Do Nothing, my friend Charles Freligh describes his Samadhi experience in this way.
His body was in agony while sitting on a meditation retreat. Instead of changing positions, Charles entered the pain, and what happens next is miraculous. (You have to read his account of the experience in the book.)
The first noble truth is that Life is Suffering.
You may agree that we are here for a purpose.
So...If you believe that our soul came here for a reason, and since life is suffering…then…this is what we came for!
As Ram Dass says: “Suffering is grace."
It’s grist for the spiritual mill.
Suffering helps us realize our inner treasures.
Whatever you’re facing in your life, whether challenges at work, business, or in a relationship—when things get tough, what if it wasn’t something to fix but rather to embrace?
Whether you knew it or not, This is what you came for.
Notice the discomfort and relax into it.
You might find something miraculous on the other side.