Comfort, that word where our body feels that it doesn’t have to make any effort, you can lie down, sit down or lean back, and your muscles will rest with no effort. A word that allows your mind to stop worrying about anything apart from if you are comfortable enough, not having to make decisions or being uncertain about what will happen next, just a state of being.
The comfort Zone is a pattern of activities where we feel safe, without an effort to make. I’m not necessarily talking about the kind of effort where we suffer or have physical hard work. This is rather connected to not having the impulse to boost yourself to learn and experiment in spaces and situations that allow you to change a little of what you know, and your perceptions of and towards life.
Let’s recall Railey from the movie «Insideout», where we can see that five «personality islands» were formed in her mind. Gradually, as she created new experiences, these qualities (represented by the islands) became part of her identity. If we knew Railey in real life we would know that this is what she likes to do and what she would be known by. At the end of the film *//spoiler alert//* her priorities, in this case the islands, change because she has grown and has lived different things. Railey went out of her comfort zone and built new aspects of her personality.
When people grow up denying or without recognizing their comfort zone, it’s very easy to get stuck in it. It may seem that there is not much left to learn in life, or something in which someone can be interested by pure curiosity. There is a saying in Spanish: «curiosity killed the cat». This is a clear example of how most of the time society «trains» you to stay safe. «If you don’t know what will happen, it’s better to avoid it», or the most common, «if it doesn’t concern or bother you leave it». This creates a personal imaginary limit that will not give you the chance to explore life, and make mistakes that teach you.
When children are born, the first thing they do from day zero is absorb information like a sponge. The human being is programmed to make a «recognition» of where he moves. Children live from day to day because their mission so far is to learn and to know. They don’t realize it, but that is an instinct. Who hasn’t ever heard a child ask something that we haven’t asked before? Life for them is as simple as saying «yes», or asking questions because the dangers and risks of failure are out of their reach and mind.
Let’s take advantage of our current situation and seek for challenges that can make us stronger. Let’s embrace mistakes with a lesson, question what surrounds us, and get to know our own comfort zone so that we know who we’re living in and have a place to come back to if we need it.
It’s like a retreat, a home for the soul, but we have to leave it every day to go and work on creating a better «I» for «you».
TP Times 