Comfort Zones and Safety

Comfort zones and safety are funny things. Food. Social media. Routines. Access to certain people in our lives. Habits that we resonate with, or things we enjoy that we pull a sense of identity from. 

Switch out the routine, and the mind decides "Nope. This is different. I'm uncomfortable." Moments later, emotion hits - panic, sadness, anger, bitterness, feeling trapped, desperation arrive - because they tend to travel with "uncomfortable." 

I can't speak for everyone, but I can say that for some people with an anxiety condition, that's what it's like. Or at least that's how it is for me.

So....you sit with it. You feel it, allow it space. Rant and rave. Say how unfair it is. Or be sad. Cry. Feel desperate. Yell at The Universe. Make demands. Roll up in a ball. Hide. Just be there, in it. Allow. Total permission to be, no filters.

After a while, you'll calm a bit. I do. You'll be able to ask yourself what you're feeling. Why do you feel like that? Ah. Okay. This is just so very DIFFERENT. So, it's scary. Threatening. It messes with your sense of self, your sense of being okay. Makes it hard to feel confident and together, like you don't maybe have control. That's not safe, right? 

Yep. There it is. 

But now you know. So, you can love yourself right now, exactly where you are. 

So, let's redefine safe. What if safety lies in flexibility?  What if we do it like Gumby, stretching and changing shape?  What if maybe that could be fun? 

You've got your inner compass. Clear intent. Pure heart. That's what makes you YOU. As long as you're using that to navigate, you're good. So it's okay to jump into what's different, things that mean we need to think or behave differently than our safe habits dictate.

Fear is okay. It either tells us to hold off because we haven't considered something from all the angles, or its just a signal that what we're getting into is NEW. That kind of fear is good, and it can mean LETS GO! That's the time to jump in and do it anyway - because this is going to be good for us. 

I'm excited about this year. I'm excited about being flexible enough to try things that are new, to look at things differently, and roll with it sometimes. Of course there will always be times when I want to draw boundaries and say "wow that's not for me." But at least I'll know because I tried it. I do know this. Your comfort zone can become a prison. 

There are always going to be things that are scary. There will always be things that don't feel safe, because they are new, and that might trigger an anxiety reaction. And that's OK. Strength lies in how we roll with it. 

So, I'm giving myself permission to roll with it my way, to not have it together all the time, to try new things, to make mistakes, and to let uncomfortable be maybe a little less scary. And I'm going to have fun.