“Stop acting so small. You are the universe in ecstatic motion.

Set your life on fire. Seek those who fan your flames.”

~Rumi

The comfort zone doesn’t sound like a bad place to be—unless what you’re comfortable with is unfulfilling behavior patterns, resentments from the past, and beliefs about yourself and the world that limit you. Defined by fear of the unknown, you’re caught in limitation and may be missing out on possibilities awaiting you beyond what you already know. 

If you’re in what we call our comfort zone, you must also have a discomfort zone—which includes all those experiences you protect yourself from. Consider these:

• Emotions you’ve been avoiding;
• Changes that seem risky;
• Potential beyond what you know and believe to be possible;
• Ease and flow with whatever life brings you;
• The freshness of life unfolding as it is.

Spinning our wheels in old baggage, thinking of ourselves as a victim, habits that don’t serve our happiness—these are the territory of the comfort zone. Although we stay safe, we also feel stuck and dissatisfied, thinking that there must be more to life.

What does the comfort zone exclude? Enthusiasm, wonder, curiosity, and infinite possibility beyond the mind’s limits.

Fear of the unknown requires us to manage our life experiences so we don’t stray into scary places. It’s like standing at the door of all that life is offering us, dividing it up by welcoming experiences that are known and excluding those that aren’t. That takes a lot of effort and just doesn’t feel free.

If you want freedom, if you’re not happy in your life, then here’s your invitation: get comfortable with discomfort.

Sometimes life unexpectedly throws us out beyond our comfort zone. Your wife says she wants a divorce, you watch your child going down a troubled path, you win the lottery. These are life-changing experiences that shatter our ideas about how things should be and make us reconsider everything.

But don’t wait for an extreme life event to explore the unknown. 

• Let yourself feel the fear that has been driving you, then don’t let it rule your choices.
• Experience the emotions that underlie your compulsive habits. Then you’re free for new ways of being.
• Have the hard conversations that you know are necessary. And it might be a conversation with yourself.
• Be willing to answer the call to lean into the unknown.
• Question how you define who you are to see if it is actually true.

Staying in the comfort zone takes effort and vigilance. It resists what is. It hides from what is true. It makes you believe you’re a fraction of who you are.

In any moment, you can go beyond it to connect with what you really want. You might find that playing it safe isn’t what’s actually calling you. Perhaps you discover the longing to be aligned with the infinite truth of things rather than the mind’s limitations.

What’s alive in you that wants to be known and expressed? Where is your full-on “Yes?” Where do you go if you follow wonder, inspiration, and love?

Consider going beyond your comfort zone to find out…