Eckhart TolleNYT Bestselling author of the Power of Now

The Ancient Secret Hidden in Discomfort

2 Jun 2026 · 1 min

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In this brief teaching, Eckhart Tolle explains that many spiritual traditions use the practice of deliberately moving out of the comfort zone to create conditions favorable for awakening. He illustrates the method with a simple experiment: placing a hand in very cold water (or immersing the whole body in a cold river) and observing the uncomfortable sensation that arises. Rather than reacting by pulling the hand away, the practitioner watches the feeling, becoming the observing consciousness and thereby disidentifying from the sensation. This act of mindful observation of discomfort is presented as a way to increase the possibility of spiritual awakening.

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Taking yourself out of the comfort zone, in many traditions this has been a practice, and there is a deep meaning behind that, and there's some insight behind that, because they realize if you take yourself out of, then there is the possibility of awakening is greater. You can even observe it with a very little thing. Let's say you put your hand in very cold water, just as an experiment, and leave it in for 30 seconds, and then the very uncomfortable feeling arises. Or you can do the whole body, jump in— there's a river here, I'm sure it's always very cold— you jump in the river, very unpleasant feeling arises. And let's just stick with the hand. Your hand is in the cold water, and then the first react is you want to pull your hand back, and there's a reaction, and this, and then you separate yourself. You just observe the feeling, and then you become the observer of that feeling, which is the observing consciousness. So you have dis— associated from the feeling. It's a feeling, it's there, but you're not reacting to it.