Comfort in the Uncomfortable

These past few months I've been able to learn a large amount about myself. I've been able to step out of my own shoes and with sharing this lesson with you, maybe I can help you in some way as well. That lesson being that: Put yourself in uncomfortable situations for that is when growth occurs at its highest potential. Below is my personal experience with how I came to this realization.

I asked for help. For those of us who don't want our ego or pride to be diminished by asking for help, I say... stop. The moment you realize you will always have something to learn about yourself, that your evolution doesn't stop once you say it does, you allow yourself to flourish. I use to think that asking for help symbolized a white flag. Now I know it symbolizes knowledge of oneself strengths and weaknesses.

 I felt my emotions. I've never been an overly emotional person. Over the past few years I've softened up quite a bit, maybe it was something that came with age. But the past few months I've taken the steps to allow myself fully sit in my emotions rather than turn to my usual coping mechanism of sweeping things under the rug. I've learned that if I kept piling emotional baggage at the door, I'd be trapped eventually. Stuck. I started giving myself permission to not be so cold to my emotional needs.

I  embraced being vulnerable, not to give power to another person but rather to give solace to myself. I think a lot of us struggle with trying to balance the power in a relationship. Whether it be a friendship or partnership... there is something to be said that whoever has the control thus has the power. In some situations, I think having this power gives people a sense of security....an armor or a shield. Why do people wear armor? Because they don't want to get hurt. I've learned to let go of that.

What do all of those things have in common? While asking for help, feeling my emotions, becoming vulnerable I felt extremely uncomfortable.  So uncomfortable to the point where I wanted to freeze and turn around and take an emergency exit. But, I forced myself to be uncomfortable because my instincts told me that whether or not a situation turned out in my favor, ultimately I would be able dig deeper into my character and learn something about myself. As that one quote says, "Life begins at the end of your comfort zone." This lesson can resonate with so many aspects of life, these are just a few examples from mine that I've gone through recently.

Keep pushing yourself to the edge of your comfort zone. You will find out that instead of falling off that edge... you'll find a way to grow a pair of wings. Cheesy, yes. But I like cheese.