...we love what’s comfortable. It's ok, it's not really your fault. The way we are raised - the way we are wired - is to find a place of comfort, and change is usually pretty uncomfortable.
One of the main functions of a very small part of our brain - the amygdala is to keep us safe, thus preventing us from making major changes in our lives. Anytime our brain receives a signal that a major change is about to be made, our amygdala releases stress hormones into our body to try to bring us back to the familiar status quo. These hormones create such a strong sense of discomfort and unpleasantness that we decide we’d just rather stay with the familiar and not make changes after all. The paradox is that the way to thrive in this world is to become comfortable with the discomfort of change.
We are constantly creating boundaries for ourselves.
Historically, boundaries have been essential to our survival, helping us determine where not to go so we can avoid danger so that we could survive. Today, while we no longer face those primitive threats, our brains are still wired to protect us, so we've found a more clever way to describe this phenomenon of building boundaries. We now call it a "comfort zone". We are surrounded day and night by man-made constructs, both physical and metaphysical, that are designed to keep us feeling comfortable. Sometimes we create these boundaries ourselves and other times we simply accept the boundaries we perceive...
"A comfort zone is a beautiful place but nothing ever grows there." - Unknown
By the very nature of its name, a "comfort zone" sounds like exactly the place we want to be, right? While there's nothing wrong with feeling comfortable at times, a life in this zone will lead to stagnation and, eventually, unhappiness. Pushing ourselves outside of our comfort zones helps us reap some amazing benefits, and we'll cover those in more depth in future posts.
Learning to effectively navigate change is the foundation of this practice. Change is not only an inevitable part of life, but essential to our growth and self-actualization as individuals. We cannot reach our greatest potential and ultimately become truly happy without being able to embrace and learn to thrive with new challenges, new experiences, and new environments.
What's more, this helps teach us how to navigate the changes we won't be able to choose, but will still encounter whether we want them or not.
What is one change you are ready to make in your life?
As always, I would love to hear from you, please post your comments below.
With Love,
Luna
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