Pushing Yourself Outside Your Comfort Zone

I am one of those people who can be a bit of a hermit. I know what I like, don’t like and what I’m comfortable doing. 

It is always a challenge when I first push myself outside my comfort zone, but it is usually always so rewarding.

And the three areas I’m going to talk about today are social, work and athletic.  

Let’s start with the easy one — athletically.

I’ve never considered myself an athletic person really. I was like the only one in my family that really did sports growing up, and I wasn’t ever really on varsity. 

But being an adult and having more control over what you do is a great thing. And I’ve been able to discover different things that I love. 

You’re probably aware that I didn’t really get into running until just last summer. Michael challenged me to run a marathon, and I thought what the heck, why not. So, I trained for a ran a marathon. 

Through that I also discovered trail running. I’ve always enjoyed going on hikes and walks, but trail running is so much fun. Plus, I think I prefer it over just regular running. 

Also last summer I decided to give a sprint triathlon a try, even though I hadn’t been training for one (outside my marathon training), but I wanted a new challenge, was bored with just running, and felt in decent shape. 

The challenge for my with doing triathlons is that I’m not the most efficient swimmer. Like I’m not going to drown, but I feel so slow. 

But at a certain point you just realize, what’s the worse that’s going to happen? I’m going to have to get pulled out of the water? Or maybe backstroke? 

Who cares?

I did my second sprint triathlon around a month ago, and I have not been running or training for anything currently, so I’m not in as good of shape as last summer. 

But I know what my body is capable of, and I was pretty sure that I could push myself through it. 

Once again I was nervous about the swim, and like 30 seconds into starting the race I thought, shit, I might have to get pulled out of the water. 

But I kept pushing myself, let go of feeling embarrassed and did the back stroke, and made it through the swim. 

There’s something I like about deciding to do a random tri without training. But maybe one of these days I will train for one. 

Work is another area that I find myself challenged in, but that’s a huge positive for me. I think I would get bored if I didn’t keep stretching myself, and pushing further and further. 

It was outside my comfort to start a YouTube channel, but look where that got me. 

It was outside my comfort zone to create a website, courses, to coach women about how to chart their menstrual cycles. But I wouldn’t be where I am without that. 

I was outside my comfort zone to do my first sponsored video, to talk to others about “what I did for work”. 

But looking back those steps seem so easy. 

And I try to remind myself of that when I’m facing my next challenge, whatever area of my life that is in. 

What’s something outside your comfort zone you’ve challenged yourself to, and how did you go about it?

I Meditated For 10 Days In A Row + What I Realized

One of my first days back from France, I was home alone working away on FemmeHead. I had cooped myself up all day so I decided to go outside on my long board since it was such a nice day out (and we’re creeping ever closer to the awful months of winter). 

It was a nice ride, but I remember coming back with this real sense of anxiety and stress in my chest, and I just remember thinking "I need to meditate". 

I had heard of an app called Headspace (no this is not a sponsored post, I wish). I decided to download it and give it a go. 

Ten minutes, I thought. I can do this.

I felt light years better afterwords. The anxiety had lifted from my chest and and felt a renewed sense of calm. So, I challenged myself to do the 10 free days of meditation in a row. 

I mean, honestly, who doesn’t have ten minutes out of their day to spare?

So, I began fitting it into my morning routine. 

+ wake up

+ write my morning pages

+ tidy for 15 - 30 minutes

+ meditate for 10

+ make a coffee/tea

+ make my to-do list

+ get started on work

On the morning of the tenth day I was sitting at my computer writing my Monday email for FemmeHead, and I could feel myself being pulled towards the red chair, pulled towards those ten minutes of calm.

Before these ten days I would meditate sporadically, never consistently. I thought I had to set up this sacred space (candles, intense, calm music, cushions, blankets and darkness) before I could begin meditating. And I thought I needed to do it for a long period of time.

As you can probably guess, because of this meditation always seemed like such a time consuming hassle that I rarely did it, which is a shame. 

What I’ve learned from these ten days is that I don’t need a sacred, pristine space. I can simply just sit down in the chair or lie down on the couch. 

There are no rules, I let my preconceived notions of meditation float out the window. 

It counts even if it’s just ten minutes, hell, even just one minute. 

I never thought I would like guided meditations. I thought I just had to sit there and keep my mind blank for 20 - 30 minutes, and that would work for me. 

At the end of my tenth meditation I went online and subscribed to a year long subscription, realizing that having someone guide me along is what I need at this point in my life, and there’s nothing wrong with that. 

I was having a rough day last week, and I found the calm I needed in that moment, in my breath. Yes, in simply just counting my breaths, 1 through 10 and starting over at 1 when I had reached 10. 

For at least a year now I’ve been drawn towards meditation, just knowing that it was something that would be really, really good for me. But I could never stick with it. Thankfully, I’ve found my solution for now. 

And my biggest take away — there is no right or wrong way to meditate. Let go of your preconceived notions of what it is supposed to do and find what works for you.