Living in the Challenge: Beyond the Comfort Zone

We all want to want to feel safe, comfortable, and free of stress. That’s universal. However, without venturing out of our so-called “comfort zone”, we grow stagnant and soft, and unable to handle setbacks and adversity.  What’s more, as we know from personal experience, we need a certain amount of manageable stress to grow and learn and prosper. 

In this episode, a talk I originally gave to the Healing Circle early in 2021, I discuss moving beyond our comfort zone using a model first developed by a Russian child development psychologist almost one hundred years ago.  

With that model as the basis, I discuss: 

• How we, as adults, can apply it when learning new skills and become aware of when we are indulging in comfort to the extreme
• How we instinctively seek our comfort zone in the way we dress, eat, and entertain ourselves
• Why seeking help from others, whether it’s with a teacher, a therapist, or a Healing Circle is often essential for moving into the learning zone
• How the right amount of manageable stress and fear always accompanies the acquisition of new skills 

I give examples from my own life, and how my spiritual teacher knew instinctively when his students were making a nest out of his teachings to reinforce their ego,  and that it was time to shake things up.