As we continue to expand and grow we continually feel the innate desire to anchor into the familiar. This is such an important part of the ever evolving experience of being human. We know that as children we need the safety and familiarity of our parents, guardians, and caregivers to feel comfortable exploring the world.
How nice is it to go on vacation, see and experience new things, and then come home and sleep in your own bed? There is this constant ebb and flow, from newness to familiar. You might have heard the very common saying “ You don’t grow in your comfort zone!” Well even though part of being human is lovingly nudging ourselves out of our comfort zone to experience the thrill of new discoveries about the world, and ourselves…..
We process, and recover IN our comfort zone……
Let’s take a breath and let that marinate for a minute. Yes, it is ok to be in your comfort zone too.
You see us, humans, we naturally make one thing wrong, if another thing is right. For instance, you like vanilla ice cream best? That means chocolate isn’t your favorite. You agree with this political party? Then that means you don’t agree with the other. We do the whole “black and white” thing all the time. It’s how we categorize our experiences. The thing is we can then easily go into excess and extremes. Take diet “fads” if you may. Even if a food is super healthy and popular for a while, like a certain veggie, supplement, or oil, that healthy thing gets put in all sorts of foods, and we become people who must ingest large quantities of said healthy thing. We go to excess. Exercise is wonderful, exercise to the extreme is harmful. So we can then believe that if you don’t grow in your comfort zone, then being in your comfort zone isn’t good……
When we talk about stepping out of our comfort zone, we have to also talk about coming back into the familiar anchors that help us to process, rest up, and feel ready for our next adventure. If we constantly push ourselves out of our comfort zones we get burned out, raw and frayed at the edges. If we listen to our bodies and our intuition, we can take the nudges to rest, anchor in, and rejuvenate.
I see this pattern in myself and I listen to those calls. I didn’t always, but I now know how beneficial a little comfort zone time can do for me.
This doesn’t just go for exploring the world outwardly. It also goes for exploring the inner spaces of who you are. It goes for releasing old paradigms, knowings, and patterns that you have been living through for a while. When we go through healing and releasing, we then have this open space to fill with new knowings and patterns. To process this, we naturally gravitate to the familiar, to anchor our new experience into our existing knowing. We desire the cozy pajamas, the time with an old friend, the comfort foods, a good night’s sleep, your favorite movie or anything else. It takes us back to the tangible experience of being human. The things that we know so well. How to enjoy food, a good conversation, and the absolute knowing of our own bed. It helps us to take a breather from the overwhelm of the newness of it all. It helps us to surrender into the new paradigm we are integrating.
Lately, for me, there has been a whole lot of new inner experiences, knowings, and paradigms flourishing. I find myself anchoring into basic things like cooking, folding clothing, watching a movie, using essential oils, good rest, Epsom salt foot baths, snuggling with my hubby and daughter, getting out in nature, among many other things. It is this beautiful flow. It is something special, it is something innate, and there is something absolutely sacred about it all.
We need both.
At moments I have felt vulnerable, energetically raw, and overwhelmed. In those moments I naturally go to the comfort. I say, “I need a break from this, I am just going to dance,” or maybe it’s rest or something else. It isn’t burnout, it is knowing my boundaries, and knowing my deep needs.
Even though we are evolving into new awesome, more empowered, paradigms about ourselves, it is still unfamiliar and new.
How do we tune into this knowing? It is easier than we make it out to be.
Sit into your body. Ask it what it needs.
Feel into your heart, feel what it wants to tell you.
Feel into your desires for yourself. Feel into your being.
I can’t remember which one of us started it but, many times when my daughter nuzzles into my lap she is sitting in “the nest”. She curls up. It is such a metaphor and a reality. It is comfortable. When she goes into a new experience and she seems a little overwhelmed, she wants to be picked up. She wants to take it all in from a place of safety in the arms of her loved ones. This gives her the comfort and confidence to explore.
Stepping out of the nest to fly…..knowing the nest is there to return to….to then go out and fly again…….
Share if you enjoyed this so someone else can!
XO,
Vanessa Uybarreta
