Comfort zones - how far to step?

My recent camping adventure/ journey/ experience, raised questions in my mind about the beliefs people hold about stepping out of their comfort zones.

On one hand people hold ideas about “getting comfortable being uncomfortable”.

And whilst this is a good philosophy to apply in our day to day life and the everyday challenges we encounter, this extreme journey into the great unknown, a remote island off the north coast of WA, made me question if this idea is always the case.

What I came to is that, like everything, there is always a balance. And sometimes a philosophy will apply and resonate with our current situation, whilst other times the exact opposite may be true.

For me this experience took me probably a step too far outside my range of what is safe for me. Which is different for each and every one of us.

Camping generally was an activity that pushed me. Challenged me. And got me to step out of what was comfortable. And I love it. I love the time outdoors. The grounded-ness of it. The stars. The sand. The earth. The trees. But this was different. The remoteness, the volume of “stuff” you need to take- searching for that one thing you’re looking for in a car crammed tight. The flies.

And then there were the roads. The bumpy winding roads. Long, expansive, seemingly endless.

And perhaps it was the anticipation of facing the extreme unknown, or perhaps it was all the factors above, but the journey into the wilderness activated within me an intensity of emotions that I could not have anticipated.

My system was activated. Fight or flight. Freeze. Freeze. Complete Freeze.

So perhaps stepping outside one’s comfort zone, doing that speech in public, trying something new, putting oneself “out there”, perhaps these are safe levels of pushing the margins of what is comfortable. But perhaps for other people even some of these may be too much of a leap.

So you see the limits of what is comfortable are different for us all. No one can truly step into another’s shoes- with all the past experiences, genetic makeup and elements of our personality that are unique to each one of us.

And so it is up to us to identify our limits. To find our edge. To speak up if something is too far out of our reach.

And to let go of the guilt. The fear of being judged or letting someone down, or not being liked for taking care of ourselves.

And the more we can understand ourselves and embrace our unique makeups with a compassionate heart, the more we can live a life where we venture to step outside our comfort zones, pushing ourselves beyond what we think we can do or handle, but not beyond.