By Sara Jane

When you think about going outside, I am pretty sure most of you are thinking about leaving the house and going into the garden or the countryside for a walk, or into town, etc.

How about thinking outside the box or going outside of your comfort zone? And how do you do that?

May I suggest you give yourself some time to think about it…

In respect of the box, I suggest you throw it away and broaden your horizons, the only limits in your life are the ones you put there.

Your comfort zone is probably how and where you are living now. It may not be that comfortable but it is familiar and for many of you feels safe.

Are you really living your life, rather than just existing day to day in the same old routine?

When was the last time you did something new, something different, broke your routine?

How uncomfortable does your life need to get for you to risk making a change?

I get it, I really do, I spent too many years in relationships I shouldn’t have been in, doing jobs I hated.

I felt stuck in a rut lined with rose thorns, whilst my 2^nd ex (yes, I took the plunge) was in a parallel rut lined with rose petals.

Eventually I took back control of my life after nearly 40 years of being a people pleaser and not knowing who I was.

Was it easy, No. It was very scary and the best thing I ever did for me.

I stepped outside my comfort zone and started to live my life, doing the things I wished to do, regardless of what others thought.

In the last 20 + years, I have moved town, changed careers twice, become self-employed, travelled and had some wonderful experiences, especially being a trainee handler at the UK Wolf Conservation trust (amazing creatures) and being part of an expedition to Romania to track Wolves and Lynx in the Carpathian Mountains through the Scientific Exploration Society with the Carpathian Large Carnivore Project.

Having decided to get out of my own way, I really went for it, making up for all that time of doing what I thought others wanted me to do and being so unhappy.

OK back to the question, how do you go about getting outside your comfort zone?

I have no doubt that there are many different answers, depending on the perspective you are coming from but for me the simplest answer is “Step back into yourself”

For me your comfort zone is outside of you, it isn’t who you truly are.

When you step back into yourself, you start to listen to your heart, your gut instincts, intuition and inspiration, you feel the rightness of what speaks to you.

Taking that first step is scary but it is O so worth it and the sense of freedom, like stepping out on to a beautiful mountainside, being on a boat on the ocean or enjoying the wind blowing through your hair, any sensation that brings you peace and contentment.

“Life Begins at the End of Your Comfort Zone” ~ Neale Donald Walsch

“If you are not willing to risk the unusual, you will have to settle for the ordinary.” ~ Jim Rohn

“Move out of your comfort zone. You can only grow if you are willing to feel awkward and uncomfortable when you try something new.” ~ Brian Tracy

A comfort zone is a beautiful place, but nothing ever grows there ~ John Assaraf

Copyright © Sara Jane 2020