How often are you wanting to do something new, branch out, or get outside of your comfort zone but you don’t because it’s….well uncomfortable? Listen, I totally get it but girl, it’s time to get comfortable with GETTING UNCOMFORTABLE! 🤘🏼
Here’s the thing friend, our comfort zone and staying comfortable is actually a survival tactic. Don’t believe me? Well, why do you think it feels good to stay in the mundane and well-known in life? Because our brain KNOWS that it’s a safe place to be, because our brain knows exactly what to expect and can anticipate what comes next. This is all rooted, maybe deeply and subconsciously, in keeping ourselves safe. Because when we do something new, our brain doesn’t know what to expect from it and it elicits the fight or flight response.
This right here 👆🏼 is why it is so hard to get uncomfortable. This is why we will sometimes slip into our comfort zones and then get stuck there. Because its where we feel safe, and its where we feel comfortable. But, after some time, you might start to notice that staying in our comfort zones is actually making us uncomfortable. We might grow to feel stagnant, dissatisfied, and resentful of the mundane.
So then how do we find the equilibrium of being comfortable…..but not too comfortable? 🤔 Lemme tell ya:
We find the line of our discomfort and step up to it on the daily without crossing over it too often.
And by this I mean, we find small things that make us squirm and we do those things daily. Maybe it’s working out, maybe it’s calling someone on the phone, maybe it’s trying out a new productivity hack that limits your phone time. Whatever SMALL, non-threatening thing it might be, we do it every day. This helps to build up a tolerance to being uncomfortable. This is the “stepping up to the line daily” part of the above formula. As we partake in these daily doses of discomfort, we actually can grow in a way we didn’t think we could. As we get uncomfortable, even in a small way, we are training ourselves to know that we can deal with discomfort, big or small, and handle it in a healthy way.
Now, it’s important to note that I am not encouraging you to throw yourself off the cliff of complete and total discomfort. That will do nothing but stun your ability to do anything. When we take on too much change, or too much discomfort, our brains tend to freeze because it’s overwhelmed by all the discomfort it is experiencing. So, know your line of discomfort, step up to it daily in some way, without overstepping your boundaries too often 👏🏼
When you partake in these small daily doses of discomfort, you will find that you are braver and more equipped to handle those natural moments of discomfort when they arise. You will be able to handle the discomfort, big or small, and manage yourself and your emotions better than you ever have.
If you try this out, comment below on this post and let me know how it went. If you want more on this, listen to episode 66 of the Living in Sunshine Podcast where I dive into it even further!
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