"There is no experience that life can bring you that is not to your benefit if you’re willing to learn from it, grow from it, expand from it."
- Michael Singer

 

What’s the meaning of life?

 

There's a heavy question for you!

 

Sorry about that, but it’s a question I think is worth pondering. 

 

Actually, it’s absolutely essential to ponder. 

 

The start of a new month always gives me a bit of a shake, a wake-up to the fact that life is precious.

 

My time here is finite and it’s speeding by.

 

Thinking about the meaning of my life spurs me to live each day with purpose and make the most of my time here on earth.

 

I don’t know how I got here or where I’m going after I’m gone.
(I’ve got some ideas I picked up along the way that resonate with me, but I don’t know for sure.) 

 

What I do know for sure is that I’m here, in this body, on this earth, for roughly 80 or 90 years, if I’m lucky, and…

 

I want to make the most of my time here. 

 

To me, the meaning of life can be summed up in two words :

 

“GROWTH” & “JOY”.

 

They seem like two different ideas, but they’re actually connected.

 

Let me explain.

 

Growth means to expand.

 

“Growth” as a person means to expand your comfort zone. 

 

We’ve all heard of a comfort zone. 

 

But what actually is your comfort zone?

 

Well - 

 

Inside your comfort zone are all the things you’re comfortable with.
The things you can do easily, without bother, and they don’t cause you any mental or emotional disturbance inside. 

 

Outside your comfort zone are all the things you’re not comfortable with.
The things that are hard for you to do, things that bother you, rattle you, irritate you, and cause you either a little or a lot of disturbance inside, depending how far out of your comfort zone they are.

 

Your comfort zone is unique to you.
Everyone's comfort zone is different. 

 

You weren’t born with your comfort zone, it was formed throughout your life from all the things you experienced that you liked or didn’t like.

 

Your comfort zone will be constantly changing and evolving until the day you die, depending on all that you experience from now until then. 

 

More significantly, it’s not the things that you have experienced that formed the parameter of your comfort zone, it’s what you thought and how you felt about the things you experienced.

 

So how do growth and joy relate?

 

Here’s how I see it.

 

The smaller my comfort zone, the more things there will be outside my comfort zone. That means more things that will bother me and cause me inner disturbance. 

 

The larger my comfort zone, the less things there will be outside my comfort zone ie. less things that will bother me and cause me inner disturbance. 

 

Get the picture?

 

The less I’m bothered and disturbed inside, the more joy I will feel.

 

Makes perfect sense to me, hopefully to you too. 

 

I also know that the bigger my comfort zone is, the more freedom I’ll have to enjoy life, try things, and have fun. 

 

Ultimately, that’s how I want to live.
I don’t want to limit my life within the scope of my comfort zone.
I want to be free to enjoy my life without limits.

 

The great thing about life is that it is constantly revealing to you where the edges of your comfort zone are.

 

It could be the little daily annoyances and irritations, or the big hairy dramas and conflicts, or being called on to do something that scares you.

 

"There is no experience that life can bring you that is not to your benefit if you’re willing to learn from it, grow from it, expand from it."
- Michael Singer

 

I believe this to be absolutely true.

 

It doesn’t mean I’ll always like what’s happening, but I do have a choice about whether to use my experience to learn, grow, and expand.

 

It seems to me, in any situation that pushes me to my edges, I have two choices :

 

1. SHRINK
2. EXPAND

 

I’m going to talk more about shrinking and expanding next week.

This week it’d be great to start to notice your comfort zone as you go about each day.

 

Click below to print the worksheet that was featured in Issue 5 of Peptalk Magazine.

 

• Write down the things you notice are inside and outside your comfort zone.
  Start to build a picture of where the edges of your comfort zone are.
   
• What are some things that are near your edge, or just beyond your edge, that only cause you a little bit of discomfort? 
   
• What’s way out there beyond where you’re comfortable?
   
• Notice the things that push your buttons, cause you to become rattled, annoyed, irritated, frustrated, or overwhelmed. These things are pointing to your edges, write them down. 

 

Becoming aware of what’s inside and outside of your comfort zone is the first step to working on pushing through those edges.

 

Next week we'll take a look at a strategy for moving beyond your comfort zone in small ways each day. It's called "start with the low-hanging fruit".

 

Till then, enjoy exploring the edges of your comfort zone.

Nadine xx