Recently a friend of mine, advised me to step out of my comfort zone.  Now, I know she meant well, the absolute best.   I had to question this idea though.  Now, I am familiar with the idea of the comfort zone especially in personal growth and evolution.  But I wanted to dig deeper.

It became clearer…the question really was when is it comfort and when is it just ‘right’.   Now this is a subtle distinction, which takes some deep inner listening to be clear about.   Sometimes going out of your comfort zone is the thing to do; sometimes what feels ‘uncomfortable’ may be our intuition speaking to us.

I say listen to your heart. 

Here’s a fun and simple exercise from the work of Deepak Chopra that helps with this:

1. Be still and take a couple of deep breaths.  Get still enough such that you can feel your heart.  This may be a challenge for some who are used to living in their head…(the first time I did it, it rocked my world, I was a head-case)  Give it some time.

2. Ask the question you want the answer to.  Ask it in a yes-no fashion.  You will feel an expansion for a yes, and a bit of a tightening for a no.

3. Be open to being surprised.  

4. Trust

The first time I did this, I was in a relationship.  With a wonderfully brilliant, attractive, sensitive, well-educated, and sensitive man…Sounds perfect, right?  I knew it wasn’t and didn’t want to believe it.  I tried this exercise hoping it would tell me different; it didn’t.  I asked again and again, hoping for a different answer.

Six months later we ‘broke up’.  Simply put, life catapulted exponentially after that.  I was being, doing, and loving in ways I had never imagined.  More importantly, it became clear to me how unhappy I was in the relationship because I was boxing myself in to ‘make’ it work….My heart knew all along.

  Be Still and LISTEN…