When I change the way I look at things …. the things I look at CHANGE!
Vase or Faces? … Horse head or Frog? … Maiden or Crone?
When I change the way I look at things … the things I look at do change! Do they? … Or do I?
This week I’ve changed the way I look at many things – starting with the “comfort zone” in which I have been living my life. Is it a pasture – or a prison? Does it keep me safe and warm, or confined and impeded? Is it helpful or hurtful?
We’ve all heard that to do wonderful things – to grow and change – we must “step outside our comfort zone“! Really? Comfort is a GOOD thing, yes? Well …. not always. It provides a sense of the familiar, but it also lulls us into complacency. Yet, to completely step outside it can be scarey. It IS the essence of the Hero’s Journey upon which we have embarked in MKMMA, so – we’ve been encouraged to expand the idea of how far we have to go in one step. Do I need to entirely breach the perimeter or can I push back the boundaries a bit at a time, testing the green grass on the other side? Every nudge and poke changes the size and shape of my comfort zone – enlarging the world in which I can explore and grow. Not so scarey, either.
This week I was also awakened to the notion that to stretch and change, to create the life I want and to grow and succeed … is already part of my genetic makeup! I’ve been programmed my whole life, at the cellular level, to learn and experiment and IMAGINE and become greatness!!!! That’s cool – and I’ve known it my whole life, but now I KNOW it! I’ve been in training to push those boundaries of comfort (while simultaneously being programmed to “don’t get too excited, you’ll just get too disappointed”) I’ve got the tools now to blast the old programming and embrace the real me – the genetic me.
What tools? I did not know that the very things I have considered impediments – the mortar holding together the bricks of my comfort zone’s walls – could be my tools for dismantling that wall and scattering the bricks. What things? Fear, guilt, unworthiness, hurt feelings and anger (and sadness – anger turned inward) By changing the way I look at them, I can use them for good. They become allies instead of adversaries.
By looking for the lesson in the obstacle (and thanking it for showing up JUST at the right time!) I’m taking conscious baby steps to push back the boundaries of “the zone” making it bigger and grander and MORE expansive with every nudge!
It feels good. Especially when the anger, or the guilt, or the unworthiness are reversed and used to create greater good and service to others, especially toward those who I have believed “caused” the emotion in the first place.
I can picture the mortar crumbling over the next six weeks of the class. I can feel the bricks of fear loosening and tumbling, being replaced by a confidence that doesn’t need to be sheltered by a wall – or a fence – or even a blade of grass!
I’m learning my Imagination is my workshop and that Inspiration comes from within. Power comes implies service and inspiration implies power.
I am on the verge of becoming who I intend to become – who I was genetically programmed to be – at the edge of my comfort zone and the trailhead of my hero’s journey. What a trip! What a life! I’ll keep you posted!
Thanks for visiting. More next week. I promise.





We’ve all heard that to do wonderful things – to grow and change – we must “step outside our comfort zone“! Really? Comfort is a GOOD thing, yes? Well …. not always. It provides a sense of the familiar, but it also lulls us into complacency. Yet, to completely step outside it can be scarey.
It was great reading your post today, and I believe we can all accomplish wonderful things if we do step out side of our comfort zones. I know for me the best things have come to me by doing uncomfortable things.
Take Care… Brodi
http://www.brodiaiguier.com
http://masterkeybrodi.wordpress.com
Hi Deb,
Ahhh stepping out of our comfort zone. That’s a brave step. It doesn’t matter if you push or break the zone, just do it.
Let give you a challenge. I’m the Missions Coordinator for the Joliet Diocese. Come on mission with our team. It’s definitely going to push the comfort zone for most people. Drop me a line at bcarlson@dioceseofjoliet.org.
masterkey.pathtofocus.com
@mkmmabec
Loved your descriptions of using negative emotions as positive tools!