Shushing Your Comfort Zone Sirens

The best compliment I ever received was that I had, “a fearless love of life.” It really stuck with me – probably because I didn’t see myself through that lens. I saw myself as just knocking on doors and opening them. At the time I had just broken up with my partner of 5 years, taken a leave of absence from work and planned a 3-month trip to Italy and Spain, solo. In hindsight, that does seem pretty fearless.

I suppose I’ve always been willing to let the boldness of an idea suppress the terror of actually carrying it out. Within the last year I decided to return to my home state in the Midwest. I had a very understanding management team at work that was willing to let me work remotely, but I first had the audacity to ask.

More recently, I’ve taken up roller derby. I had some friends who participated and finally one day told my inner doubter to just be quiet, show up to the beginner practice night and see what happens. Well, of course, I loved it.

It’s not unlike when I saw a flier to become a certified Yoga teacher. I had practiced yoga and enjoyed it, and with a bit of spare weekend time on my hands decided it was worth the 200-hour investment. I remember being so nervous for the first weekend, which was being held as a retreat. My soon-to-be peers were exchanging emails planning a potluck. There were vegan suggestions and gluten allergies and sensitivities to soy. One gal even had her own chickens and was going to bring a quiche made from said chicken’s eggs. Never had I felt so foolish – what on earth was I getting myself into? Thankfully, I gathered my courage and organic sparkling lemonade and showed up to the retreat. I made lifelong friends through the retreat and later yoga certification classes. All because I didn’t let that moment of “What the heck am I doing?” fear win.

Does your comfort zone serve a purpose? Of course, and it absolutely warrants attention when you’re not in a safe situation. But I’m willing to bet most of us hear our comfort zone sirens most frequently in situations that make us unsure or insecure. And in those situations, I’m a firm believer of saying, “Thanks for the cautionary advice, but I’m going to go ahead and see what happens.”

Thank you God, for whatever is going to happen.

I sat in my mindfulness yoga class today reflecting on the experience of Lent. In the Catholic tradition, this is a time to renew our baptismal promises by rooting out sin in our lives and to experience a deeper conversion to a God-ly life through penance. It can be a sorrowful and gloomy 40 days.

Often times we hear that life is about the journey and not the destination. However, during this Lenten journey of self-scrutiny and soul-tidying perhaps we may do ourselves a favor by instead focusing on the destination. And the beautiful miracle of faith, at least for me, is knowing that the destination is far more magical and wonderful than anything I could possibly imagine sitting here in my current soul-dusty state. How many times has God’s answer to a prayer been more inventive and awesome than what you could have ever conceived? So with experience and faith as my security, I have to believe that wherever my soul is on Easter, it’s going to be a life greater and fuller than anything I can conjure.

So yes, the Lenten journey is no easy task. It is the burden of a cross, in fact. But the reward for all that hard work is a life rich in blessings beyond our wildest dreaming. This Lent, I’m going to do the hard work that carries me through the journey but I think I will steady my focus on the destination. And I may not be surprised to find that it has made the journey joyful.