Why Comfort Zone is Double Trouble?

People keep searching for security, safety, comfort, and validation in everything and anything they do. There are very few people who are content and calm with their life. Be it work, health, or relationships, we want a sense of comfort from them. We hold one corner of it and then snatch the whole sheet. It is all okay till it is not okay.

When comfort is at its peak, we are unshakable. We feel on top of the moon. We say that in this state, we are settled. There are daily tasks which we do. We find difficulty carrying them out or face monotony. The everyday conversations that take place become bland or forced. The money we get is enough, and one day it is not.

It is all fine and okay until it is not. And one day, the grass is greener on the other side, and ours is pale. We become aware and look around ourselves for tasks and things out of our comfort zone. We do not like anything around us. Our home feels old, the same house for years, the exact vehicle for years, the same degree, the same job: all stagnant, no growth. At the same time, we start comparing ourselves to others.

Malice’s feelings kick in like emptiness, stagnation, irritation, confusion, and frustration, and soon we become conscious that comfort is not comforting us anymore. We keep pondering how to get over this discomfort and all these feelings of despair.

Embracing Discomfort is the New Comfortable

Realization of discomfort is painful. But one needs to understand comfort does not bring growth, expansion, or fulfillment. Hard work, which often seems like discomfort, brings.

Comfort is staying stagnant where you were. Discomfort demands moving out of what once was a safe, secure zone. One needs to face a pristine environment, make bolder, tougher choices, and let go of things, people, relations, and professions that hold them back like an anchor and hamper their growth. It also involves acceptance and acknowledging the factors that we keep hiding from because we fear seeing them.

We have heard that ignorance is bliss but till when? Only till the time is it not painful. Eventually, when the pain comes, we cannot handle it and function well while experiencing it. We should not fear discomfort. If we cannot put ourselves in a situation where we get uncomfortable, we will not grow and change and will certainly never learn.

“Growth is uncomfortable; you must embrace the discomfort if you want to expand”-Jonathan Majors

SEE ALSO: How To Be Positive Again in Life?

Why is Ignorance not bliss here?

We ignore, and we let ourselves procrastinate and delay. We give ourselves an explanation of why we are stuck where we are. But we know the truth. We see the excuse we are feeding ourselves to avoid the pain.

We tell ourselves stories about being stuck in a college or job that does not satisfy us. Often we hold on to relationships that we have long outgrown, or we now have no future. It is because we are scared of being lonely, or we are people pleasers and cannot afford to be inadequate in their eyes.

Ignorance is bliss only till the time it is not painful.

Growth can be intimidating. But we know that we can get through it. Humans are meant to grow and evolve. Even if we feel we do not have any purpose to serve, we will eventually find it because life is given with one virtue which is to evolve and become the best versions of ourselves.

Growth can be slow and painful, but in the end, it will help us ripen. We should be aware that this is for our betterment, the pain, discomfort, and change we face. This will help us get over the idea of the pain that we feel the change will give us.

“You never change your life until you step out of your comfort zone; change begins at the end of your comfort zone.”

SEE ALSO: The Thin Line Between Self-love and Narcissism

How to Get Out of your Comfort Zone?

What can we do to get out of our comfort zone? We must acknowledge and be receptive to awareness.

• Daily Reflections– Be it daily journaling or weekly or monthly analysis. We must write down, the old school pen paper way, about all parameters of our life. What are we doing with our life? What should we do with it to meet our aspirations?

• Becoming Aware– The positives and negatives. We must have gratitude for the things we have which bring us happiness and joy. We should also list out the negatives of our life, which bring us remorse and sadness.

• Knowledge of Discomfort– Being aware of what is causing discomfort. Knowing what is not making you feel how you expected it to make you feel.

• Acceptance is the key– Accepting our feelings and being comfortable with them. For example, not liking the job you do, unable to study the subject you are trying to, not being happy with your mental & physical health, and being unable to be comfortable with family or friends.

• Initiate the action plan– Ask yourself questions to increase your awareness of yourself. What do you want? Why do you want? How will you get it? What are the obstacles to achieving it?

• Find solutions– Devise solutions to the problems. Is it your fear that is preventing you from achieving it, your insecurity, or some unavoidable practical constraint?

• If you cannot change something, change how you feel about it.

To evolve, we need to get comfortable with discomfort. It is for us to decide when we are ready to conquer the demons outside and within us. Change is inevitable. We must make peace with it; the earlier we do, the better. The discomfort right now will become comfortable soon as it did earlier!