S5 Ep3: Positivity Learned from the Uncomfortable
Growth comes only from leaving our comfort zones
Despite being an actor in HS, a DJ in college, and serving as a court herald in my medieval organization – and speaking publicly in front of hundreds, sometimes – I’m more introverted than extroverted. Ambivert is a fair approximation for me.
Doing this uncomfortable thing is extremely positive for my overall life approach. Why and how does that work?
You can’t grow from your comfort zone
What does it mean to live? It’s not simply a matter of existing, of being half-present, of just surviving. It’s about thriving. Having experiences, learning things, meeting people, doing things, and the like. Unfortunately, this means there will be pain and bad things. However, that’s just a part of the life experience. Living isn’t always comfortable, and that’s okay.
Growth comes from experiences. Some are tangible, others intangible. Actively growing is empowering, and opens you to all kinds of potential, possibilities, and options.
Becoming comfortable getting uncomfortable
This is just like any muscle. The more you work it the stronger you get.
It is equally important that you work and grow your mental, emotional, and spiritual muscles like you would your physical ones. This will be uncomfortable. That’s largely because you are stepping into the unknown. There is no certainty in the unknown save uncertainty and the unknown.
Getting mindfully uncomfortable
The first step in the process is to identify what you desire to change. Mindfulness around this topic begins with acquiring conscious awareness of my thoughts, feelings, actions, approach, and intentions. Just thinking and feeling this out is a step away from my comfort zone. That’s because it points me in the direction of the unknown and uncomfortable.
Mindfulness can only be practiced by each of us individually.
The power of non-toxic positivity
Looking at both the positive and the negative - and choosing a positive approach - is genuine positivity. Toxic positivity ignores, disregards, and discards the negative. That’s unrealistic, unhealthy, and of course toxic.
Doing the uncomfortable thing via conscious awareness is a positive approach that can help you actively grow, change, and evolve. Growth comes only from leaving our comfort zones. Since I would rather take the wheel and drive my life than just go for a ride, this is how I empower myself, and is worthwhile to me.
That’s why doing the uncomfortable thing is positive. How empowering is that?
This week’s Applied Guidance for Mindfulness Tool:
When something uncomfortable happens in the next week – specifically anything that draws you out of your comfort zone, like a conversation, an opportunity to do something new and unusual, or the like - consider it before you act on it or dismiss it.
What you believe – positive or negative – is true. After something pulls you out of your comfort zone or otherwise causes you to feel uncomfortable, it’s easy to go negative. However, you have a choice.
Here’s the exercise:
1. Write whatever the situation is/was down
2. Explain why it generated the emotion it generated
3. How are you feeling?
4. If negative, can you refocus to find and/or create a positive?
This is meant to show you how self-awareness and mindfulness empower you to change any belief you hold. It will also show how you can get comfortable and work with positivity in an uncomfortable situation.
this in mind going forward.
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