Outside the comfort zone

imageLast night I had to move outside my comfort zone. Only yesterday morning I was talking to a wonderful group of visionary women about the nudges I keep getting from my Guides. They want me to make videos to help people find out more about connecting to the Spirit World. They also want me to get involved in radio & podcasting. To make the point sink in I ended up with a dodgy broadband connect so I couldn’t access this blog page as I usually do. In the end I had four attempts at recording a video, so more practice than I expected!

Today I went off to do something I enjoy doing. I was at Blackpool Spiritualists Church doing the service. It’s very much in my comfort zone now. So comfortable that I could take my shoes off because it was part of a message. Immediately before I started I suddenly thought about how scared I used to be of standing up to give messages. In fact I told people at my first development group that I would never get up on a platform to give messages. So Spirit have helped me move a long way out of that particular comfort zone. Now they want me to move out of other comfort zones. And I’m going to have to make myself uncomfortable to do so.

That is where the resistance usually kicks in. Making a change to any pattern involves stepping into a whole load of doubt, reluctance and fear. If I can’t ‘see’ how things are going to turn out, how I’m going to be when the changes have been made it’s almost easier to try to stick with things staying the way they are. Yet staying the same rules out discovering the new. So it turns out that I am good at connecting with the Spirit World, getting the evidence they want to give and passing on messages. If I had carried on resisting their requests for me to try giving messages in public an opportunity for me to discover a skill and a new passion would have been missed. I suspect it would have come around again but less people would have been connected to their loved ones because I was scared or doubtful. I now wonder how many times they tried to get me out of that particular comfort zone and my reluctance won.

I have several other comfort zones to expand and grow through yet. I have a distinct advantage this time though. I am aware that I resist out of doubt & fear. I also have Guides helping me when I take my first, second and third wobbly steps over the existing line. There is great support available to me from some wonderful people in my life who encourage me to go for it. And I also know that the dithering will always end up with me taking that first step. You see, I also know that I love to grow. It may be painful, challenging or hard work but I enjoy finding a new bit of me – a skill or talent, a mindset or attitude – something that will widen my horizons. Growth is also fun, inspiring, energising and exciting. It’s why we are here. In fact I called my business Growth Into Awareness because I wanted to remind myself that a comfort zone becomes something of a prison if I refuse to let myself change & develop.

Starting right now I’m working on moving outside another comfort zone – more of this in future blogs. Let’s see how far I can move myself this time. If you are finding the pressure of change is inside of you it’s time to recognise your comfort zone has got too small. You have undiscovered & unacknowledge talents and skills. Push yourself a little. Step out one, then two, then more steps. Explore. Rediscover the excitement of the new space in your life. Step lightly through the changes you are making to become more ‘you’. Doubt, fear and uncertainty will be part of your journey. Make then useful by stepping further into those feelings. Turn them into a positive force for change rather than a big brick wall to contain you. You are a unique human being with much more to offer than you recognise yet. Enjoy your journey of discovery!

Day 156 of my blogging challenge.

Resisting intuitive leaps!

imageOut intuition nags at us all day, every day. We develop a habit of resisting the information we are being given. We would much prefer our world to be the way we choose to see it through our logical, rational eyes. When something won’t fit with the logic we resist. In fact, resisting applies to all sorts of information we would rather not notice. We resist that feeling or this thought. We tell ourselves that what we are thinking can’t be right. We prefer to judge with a negative bias. Somehow we have become conditioned to making life as hard as we can for ourselves. So when we try cosmic ordering to manifest what we need or want we often place the order and then deny it’s  what we really want. It’s a bit like going into a restaurant, ordering a tasty meal and then saying to ourselves that we can’t possibly enjoy all those lovely calories – it’s not good for our body. When the meal arrives we eat with such guilt that it tastes like sawdust.

Stepping away from restricting ourselves isn’t easy. After all it’s a habit it’s taken us a lifetime to perfect. So if we ignore our intuition as a matter of course how much harder does it make being able to take an intuitive leap? My connections with the Spirit World haven’t come about because of logic or a rational approach. When I consider the way my development has happened it’s very clear that a big step forward has always followed an intuitive leap. There is a kind of ‘let’s try this’ exploration going on. Something stirs my curiosity and the next thing I’m full on in an experience to find out all about what I was curious about. The things I get curious about also come along in what, on the outside, look like a series of random chances. Yet underneath there is clearly a pattern of acquiring experiences that prompt the next big leap. The more I take those intuitive leaps the stronger my trust in my intuition has become.

Yet I keep resisting. It’s as if the logical part of me finds it hard to let go. Perhaps the magic that happens when we create big strides forward puzzles my logical mind. Intuitive leaps do bring magical outcomes. Not only unforseen but also unexpected things happen when we ‘go with the flow’. Big answers leap into our concious mind. Issues are clear and decisions seem to take themselves. Of course some of this resistance is the underlying fear of change. We set up habits and patterns to give us the illusion of control over our outer world. We also do this to make our inner world more routine for our self investigation. Resisting allows us to notice that we are stepping outside of our internal comfort zone. We are breaking the mould that we set our creativity into. Observing that resistance, feeling it and understanding it opens the door to choice. We can stick with resisting or we can leap forward.

Resistance isn’t, as often quoted, futile. We are human beings who like to challenge ourselves – a lot! Resisting your intuition can teach you a lot about how you are narrowing down your choices. The brave thing to do is to notice the resistance, feel the feelings and leap anyway. Is it time you took another intuitive leap in your life?

Day 119 of my blogging challenge.