Reframe Your Comfort Zone

It takes a lot of courage to make changes in your life: a new job, moving house, or ending a relationship. Stepping out of your Comfort Zone can be daunting, but perhaps if you shift your perspective, you will find it easier to take the first step. With the intention to inspire this shift, I am sharing a bit of my own story in this recording. I hope you enjoy it and would love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

Transcript

How do you define your comfort zone?

Is it a place that you call home?

Does your partner give you that feeling?

Maybe it's a group of friends or perhaps your job.

More than likely it's a combination of all of these things.

When you feel comfortable life feels easier and more effortless and that's why the thought of changing any of the elements that make up your comfort zone can be anything from a little daunting to fear inducing.

Having said that I would like to invite you today to re-evaluate how you look at your comfort zone and perhaps a new perspective will make it easier to break out of it.

About two and a half years ago I was working in my then dream job as the head of the marketing department at Edinburgh's largest five-star hotel.

At that time I was in the job almost two years long enough to have that level of knowledge that makes you comfortable in your work.

When you know what needs to be done,

How to do it and who you need to collaborate with.

I had established friendly relationships with my colleagues and generally speaking I enjoyed coming to work.

I was in my comfort zone.

Then one Friday night after my weekly yoga class a question made me curious.

My teacher asked me when I was planning to do my yoga teacher training.

Frankly until then it hadn't even occurred to me to ever teach yoga.

I just really enjoyed attending classes.

The classes were also part of my weekly routine,

Part of what made up my personal comfort zone at that time.

And so were the friends I had made over many years of living in Scotland's beautiful capital.

We had our regular coffee catch-ups,

Post-work drinks,

Weekend brunches and days spent on the beach.

I was single at the time but the freedom that came with it was also part of the life I was living happily and contently.

Change was on the horizon though.

A few months later I found myself on a week-long yoga retreat in Indonesia.

Daily practice of yoga and meditation combined with a profound peace you can only find in nature,

Ubud's jungle sounds were whispering to me.

Connecting with fellow travelers,

Yogis and our teacher,

I could feel that Friday night question transform from a seed into a rooted dream that was starting to reach for the sky.

By definition a dream is a cherished aspiration,

Ambition or ideal.

It doesn't sound like something you will find within your comfort zone and that makes it scary too.

That is the reason why many people dream of a different life but aren't able to take the first step.

Fast forward half a year and I am now unemployed and on a two-week tour around India,

Planning a quick stop in Nepal and then undergoing yoga teacher training in Bali.

One step closer to fulfilling that new dream of mine.

Then I thought I'll volunteer for a while to get some teaching experience and then head back home and start my new career.

Well things turned out very differently from how I had them planned and this is probably true for everyone in the last two years.

Ten days into my trip around India the fear of the coronavirus pandemic really started to take hold with first flights being cancelled and countries closing borders.

For me the first change of plan occurred when Nepal closed and then shortly after the yoga teacher training in Bali got postponed.

At that time there was hope that maybe after two or three months things would calm down and I could get back on track with my original plan.

In that moment in the middle of March 2020 I had two options.

Go back to Edinburgh where I had no job and no purpose or stay where I was while I had enough savings to keep me going for a little while.

Wait it out and then keep pursuing my path.

As my fellow explorers headed back home I trusted that I was in the right place and so I stayed.

There were a few things that helped me in my decision-making process but that's another story.

So here I was alone in India with no friends,

No home and no job in India.

Can you believe it?

Of all the countries isn't that a dangerous place to be for a woman on her own?

If you had said to me a year ago that next year you'll get stuck in India or rather you will choose to stay in India I would have laughed out loud.

You can't get any further away from your comfort zone than this.

But here's the thing I was not really alone.

I was surrounded by people.

People who became friends,

People who became family and the place that after just a couple of months felt like home.

My first stop Pulchati Ashram located just a few kilometers east of Rishikesh on the shores of the Holy River Ganga.

I booked in for a week to attend their yoga and meditation program that featured daily mantra chanting amongst other things.

Three days into the program India went into a national lockdown and naturally I had a moment of doubt.

What would happen now?

How long would this last?

What am I going to do here?

So I booked a flight back home to leave two or three days later but woke up to a cancellation email the next morning.

So I just surrendered and gave up on the idea of returning home.

Instead I shifted my focus on making the most out of my time at the ashram reminding myself that people travel from all over the world to experience ashram life just for a week or two and my stay there continued for almost two months.

I focused on my daily yoga practice,

Read books to prepare me for my training which I was still hoping would happen in a few months,

Took time to rest and made friends.

Meanwhile friends and family from back home kept checking in and work opportunities appeared.

I helped out at the ashram with some website design and then started working with Andrew Johnson a dear friend and a meditation and mindfulness teacher by profession.

I can tell you more about my time at the ashram but for now let's just say that when I got to a point where I was once again comfortable with my daily routine and the people around me those people left and it was time for me to move on as well.

I was still unsure about what would happen with that training in Bali which was all paid for with no refund in sight when India introduced a traffic light system whereby movement between green zones was now allowed again.

Ask anyone who was in the ashram with me at that time the training was the one thing I would not stop talking about.

Bali clearly wasn't happening right then but I was determined not to go home unless I accomplished the one thing that made me quit my job and leave Scotland.

My asking around eventually led me to a local yoga school in Tapuvan,

Rishikesh and as soon as I was physically able to get there I joined Raj and family at Yoga Padma for my first 200 hour Hatha yoga training.

In the weeks that followed the training the girls who completed the training with me introduced me to lots of people who they spent the first two months of lockdown with and that is how Rishikesh became my home.

That is how I made friends and that is how months later I met my partner and we traveled all over India together then Europe and the US and now he is here in Bali with me and we are creating a life together.

None of that would have happened if I had decided earlier to go back to Edinburgh or even to not go on that India trip in the first place because news of corona were already circulating at that time.

When you stay in a place for a longer time and you find your way around it you become comfortable.

You find cafes you like,

Where to go for the best coffee,

What to order for breakfast,

Where to buy the best fruit and veggies and any other supplies you need.

When you keep going to the same places you get to know their owners and other regulars and you become friendly and comfortable.

This applies no matter where you are in the world.

Maybe you don't go to cafes every day but you might go to a gym,

An office,

Use public transport.

There will be places that you visit regularly and things you do daily or weekly.

As soon as you figure out how something works best you become confident and comfortable.

It takes a lot of courage to make changes in your life whether it is a change of job or whether you are planning to move or maybe you find yourself at the end of a romantic relationship.

Just remember this,

The comfort zone that you are in right now wasn't always your comfort zone.

Before you became comfortable in it,

It was a big unknown just like India was a huge unknown for me but it became my home,

It became my comfort zone.

It takes time and it takes effort of course but you can create a new comfort zone whenever and wherever you want in any way shape or form.

You are the creator of your life.

Whether you are the one implementing changes in your life or you find yourself at a crossroads without your choosing just remember that the end of one thing is the beginning of something new,

An opportunity to create a new comfort zone.

Thank you for listening.

I hope you enjoyed this recording and please do leave your feedback in the comments below and I look forward to sharing more with you real soon.

Reviews

A refreshing look at taking control of our comfort zone, enjoyed the confident way this was presented. Thank you!

A very helpful reminder about comfort zones. Thank you for sharing your story.

So inspiring ♥️

This is just what I needed to hear today. Thank you 🙏

What an amazing and inspirational story! Thank you so much for sharing 🙏🏻💚