Have you noticed how your life can shrink around you until one day you wake up and wonder, what actually happened to my life? What happened to me? Your life feels so small and so limited you can’t even seem to locate it.
You remember the way you used to be and how life used to feel. There was a time you were always taking risks and stepping out of your comfort zone. It wasn’t easy to live like that – by definition stepping outside your comfort zone could never be easy. But you also thrived on it. You knew that if you weren’t taking risks, you weren’t living.
But somewhere along the way, you started letting yourself be just a little more comfortable. Then a little more. And a little more.
Slowly but surely your risk-taking muscle that you’d worked so hard to build, shrivelled and went underground. At first you didn’t even notice. Life felt quite nice, quite undisturbed, quite easy.
But that can only last so long. As soon as growth stops, decay begins. Soon, the boundary fence of your life stops expanding and starts closing in on you until it’s so tight up against you that you can hardly breathe.
And now here we are. Everything in your life looks wonderful and yet you wander through your days feeling like you’re only half alive. Somehow, you totally lost sight that the world is an endless game of possibility.
When you stop seeing with possibility eyes, you stop living. You start believing that the way things are is the only way they can be.
You stop believing that new doorways can open at any moment. Doorways that lead not just into the next room that looks very much like this one, but doorways that send you hurtling through worlds until you land with a bump in a brand new landscape that is entirely new in every way.
When you access the energy of possibility, something inside of you reawakens. This reawakened part understands that life, with all its seriousness and sorrows, is also a game of joy and expansion.
Sitting in this energy field, you feel the power and possibility of your life. You feel how the boundary fence surrounding you is made entirely from the limits of your own mind. You feel the creative energy of the universe pulsing through you. You feel vibrant and alive once more.
You make a promise to yourself to keep your eyes open and to keep living from this place of possibility. And you will start today by taking one simple step outside of your comfort zone. Because now you’ve remembered that this was what made life worth living.
To taking risks, stepping outside your comfort zone, and living in a world of possibility!
Love and COURAGE,
Leah
This spoke volumes to me too Leah! You have captured beautifully the story of my life right now. The undercurrent of dissatisfaction I have felt in recent years as a result of feeling stagnation creep into my life. The paralysis of not knowing which direction to go and feeling lost. Feeling stuck and ill-equipped to move out from this place. And fully agree the pandemic and introversion make this evermore challenging!
I loved your description of ‘doorways that send you hurtling through worlds until you land with a bump in a brand new landscape that is entirely new in every way’. Yes! Those portals that transport us into unprecedented new territories.
But thanks also for reminding me that with small steps I can begin to exercise the muscle again and build momentum for further growth and change…
Oh, thank you for sharing Katy! I think these periods of feeling a certain stagnation and sense of being stuck can be so challenging to move through. As I’ve said so many times in comments or emails, for me, knowing there are others out there who might be going through something similar is always one of the biggest helps. Here’s to the small steps that can lead to whole new worlds!
It’s like you opened my brain and took the thoughts right out of my head with this one. I know this can happen to all people in different ways but I’ve noticed for me, being single and without children, I have experienced this feeling more and more the older I’ve gotten. I started out so involved in my life. But eventually, the people I spent time with found their own paths with their own families and not everyone is able to fit me in to their current life in the ways they might have in the past. Then, one day I woke up and realized I’m not going out as much, and I’m not involved as much because the people I enjoyed doing those things with drifted in a different direction. Next thing I know, I’m in a cycle of work, eat, sleep, do it all again. It makes me so sad. But as an introvert, and especially during the pandemic, it’s been easy for me to let that happen. Until the loneliness creeps in. Then I realize I have to choose my discomfort. I can either accept a smaller, solitary life or input myself into new situations to become reconnected with people and possibilities. Too bad it’s not always easy to see this changing until you’re in the middle of it wondering, “what has happened to me”? Love to you, Leah. Thanks for validating my own feelings.
Hello Jill! What you said about starting out being so involved with your life struck such a chord. I very much agree that as an introvert, and especially during the pandemic, it has been very easy to become more and more insular. I love spending time on my own but, like everything else in life, that can come from a joyful place of expansion or a kind of sad place of limitation. I suppose life is always moving and changing though so part of the joy is seeing how things have changed and finding the energy and courage to move in a new direction again and, like you said so wonderfully, become more involved in life again.
Sending lots of love to you for the end of the year. Your Chicago flag decoration is hanging happily on my Christmas ‘branch’ and I think of you every time I look at it. Here’s to choosing a little more discomfort. xx