let go and watch it soar
Comfort zones can be really good things. They are places that give you a chance to take a deep breath. It’s really not necessary to push yourself constantly to do things and to be things that are not natural for you. Being in a comfort zone feels good. You can learn to accept yourself as you are and you learn to understand that your personality style is fine, that you don’t have to become someone else to be happy. For example, I know that I am an extrovert and that I need to be around other people to gain energy. During the shutdown in 2020, I spent months outside of my comfort zone and that was difficult. But I learned to adjust to the long periods of alone time because I really had no other alternative. Once the world reopened, I was able to leave the relentless aloneness and enjoy the companionship of other people. I’ve never been an especially gregarious person. That is to say, I don’t really care to be that person who “works a crowd” and finds cocktail parties in noisy spaces to be exhilarating. That is as far out of my comfort zone as the relentless aloneness of the shutdown.
When you leave your comfort zone, you have the opportunity to gain confidence as you navigate uncomfortable experiences and surroundings. When you return to your comfort zone, you have the chance to process your experiences and tell the stories. You can tell the stories with words, plctures, songs, quilts, or by any number of ways that you choose to tell a story. During the course of this current Ultimate Blogging Challenge, I will explore in this website ways of sharing a story. One of the things that I am hoping to do in the future is to collect oral histories because everyone’s story has great value and needs to be remembered in one way or another. So now, you’re probably asking, “why leave my comfort zone ever?”
Leaving your comfort zone expands your perspective. It’s an opportunity for growth, while being in your comfort zone is a time for relaxation. When you leave your comfort zone, you need to rely more on your imagination. You need to find creative ways to cope with discomfort and change. Most of all, you need to let your imagination go. Let it soar. There are so many people in this world who believe that they lack imagination. I want to tell you that you do have imagination, that it may express itself differently for you than for others. But it’s yours to embrace, where ever it may be taking you.
Alice, yes, we will always be happiest as we honor our basic inborn personalities. You’re making me think about comfort zones and our experience of them. I didn’t experience isolation during the worst of the Pandemic, b/c I had to be taking care of my ill husband. He passed shortly after I had cancer surgery a year ago, and I just wanted to be alone with my physical pain and my grief, plus reorganizing the house– still on that one!
Coming from a small Caribbean island, I have had to live outside of my comfort zone many times, Alice. I must say that those were the times I grew most… mentally and emotionally.