Comfort zones...

At recent gathering of friends a devotion was read that talked about comfort zones and being comfortable with self and our relationship with God. That started me thinking about personal comfort zones and how we live with and deal with being out of the comfort zone in other areas of our life.

The Merriam-Webster definition of comfort zone is “the level at which one functions with ease and familiarity.” In other words what works best for us at any given moment or situation. It’s the aura of peace that surrounds us when all is right with our world.

We all have comfort zones, and those change as we age. We move into these zones by the continual action, activity, or non-activity of certain scenarios. We’re comfortable with our families, we’re comfortable with school, we’re comfortable with relationships, we’re comfortable with jobs or careers – until we’re not!

Long ago and far away, one of my college professors led a simple experiment to move us from a normal day-to-day activity to a situation that made us feel a bit “off.” I chose to wear my watch – normally on my left wrist – on my right wrist for a day. It’s amazing how such a simple change can cause a bit of confusion in your day! Your comfort zone skews to the side and you anxiously wait for your whole self to be right-side up once again.

One of the earliest times many of us feel a bit discombobulated is when we began dating, most likely as a teenager. Remember being nervous on your first date with a different individual, hoping you didn’t drop food in your lap or you didn’t fall when getting out of the vehicle in which you were riding, or you didn’t say something completely ridiculous? You survived to go on other dates with that person, or with other individuals, moving into a comfort zone after a period of time with all of them. (And guess what – that nervousness is the same when you date much later in life!!)

Often being out of your comfort zone can cause panic. If you’ve ever been lost in a big city you may remember that feeling of anxiety, fearing that you’ll never get home or that something horrible will happen on the way to the right direction. For a while you feel really stressed: your heart pounds, your stomach hurts, and your mind races. But then you made it out of the unknown and back to your normal routine. You found yourself in your own space once again.

Moving out of your comfort zone, whatever and wherever that is, almost always causes tension – for a bit. Let yourself be mellow for a little bit while life seems so disorganized – a few hours, days, or even weeks or months – and you’ll find you live in a new, albeit different, comfort zone. Breathe. Even in the most dire of situations there is a bit of normalcy in some area of your life. Focus on what you can control to help ease you back to that much-loved comfort zone.

When you think about it, our entire life is moving from one comfort zone into another. So remember that sweet spot of contentment that is in you. At your very core, you know who you are and you will always come back to that comfort zone, and that is all that matters.