Comfort Zone - Finding Expansion

A while back I wrote about finding what we are capable of and not just doing the thing that we are merely good at. However, understanding that means we need to understand our comfort zone, how we are currently living and how we can take ourselves to a point of expansion without being tripped up by fear and burnout.

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Our comfort zone is exactly what it sounds like. It is the place where we feel comfortable, it is the space where we can do what we are good at and just be at peace. It is also the place that is related to our rest and digest nervous system response. It is our safety and stability. That could be a job that we have, a role we take on in a relationship, or just something that comes naturally to us. Most of us spend a majority of our time in our comfort zone. Spending time in the comfort zone is not a bad thing but when all you do is spend time in your comfort zone you can never increase the radius of that zone and find other things that fit in that realm.

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This is where the expansion zone enters the fray. The expansion zone is the zone just outside of our comfort zone. This is where we grow, we learn about ourselves and we find out what we are capable of. This is where we become comfortable with the uncomfortable and unknown. The expansion zone is full of discomfort because the expansion zone is full of unknown potential. We may find something that lights a spark inside of us that is exigent and becomes a part of our purpose. Maybe we find something that we thought we would enjoy but in reality it is not aligned with us and we are able to pivot and find something that is aligned with us.

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Because the expansion zone sits just beyond the comfort zone the more time we venture into expansion and away from our comfort zone the more we can grow and learn. We can only grow and learn through discomfort but eventually we can mold this discomfort into something that becomes a part of our life and our comfort zone expands. When our comfort zone expands we truly start figuring out what we are capable of. The continuous expansion of our life and how we live it is how we find our passion and purpose, then as I have mentioned many times before we embody and exude that in everything we do and we can create the life that we desire.

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However, if we spend too much time in our expansion zone we start to venture towards our fear zone. The fear zone is the zone that triggers our fight or flight mechanics. It is the zone that takes us away from who we are and can take us to a life of just survival. Always trying to expand and grow will lead to burnout and this burnout takes us to the fear zone where we become paralyzed and unable to act. When we enter fight or flight mode our body does what it needs to do to survive. We aren’t worried or focused on growing or learning but on surviving. We become fearful of failure and struggle to even find safety in our comfort zone, or worse yet we don’t even know how to re-find our comfort zone.

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I feel this happens to a lot of people, they try to grow outside of their comfort zone but push too far past expansion and end up in fear and become hesitant to even try again. I personally use the analogy of being tethered to our comfort zone with a rope. As we gain more experience our rope grows in size. As our rope grows in size we can spend more time in the expansion zone and then safety come back to our comfort zone. However, the more tension we put on the rope the more likely it is to break. If it breaks and we have ventured too far into expansion or even into the fear zone it becomes harder to find our way back home again.

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We need to find that balance between doing what we are good at in our comfort zone and challenging ourselves in our expansion zone without taking it too far for us not to be able to come home. The more time we can spend challenging ourselves the more opportunities we get to find what we are truly capable of. The comfort zone is a great place, but it is not the place that allows us to evolve into who the world needs us to be. Take the leap into the unknown and expansion zone and see what you find. Then add that towards your comfort zone and start building your life, the way you desire.