christine

and I think a lot of people say “push your limits” or “leave your comfort zone” but it’s not as simple as crossing a line. It’s a whole process where you are going to deal with a lot of ambiguity, volatility, negative emotions & thoughts

things that come up may include: you don’t know anyone, you have limited visibility, you don’t speak the “language”, you don’t know what you’re doing, you don’t know where you’re going, you don’t know where you stand in social hierarchy, you feel kind of triggered,

You have the urge to bail, you feel foolish, you’re nervous and on alert for danger, you feel out of place, you’re waiting around on inconsistent plans or spending a lot of time loitering in one place

I tend to imagine social consequences if I were to fail/do something silly/ get in danger and need rescuing

I think in these situations it’s good to 1) know that you are going/planning to be in this kind of scenario 2) expect to experience turbulence 3) try to increase your patience/tolerance/chill when the discomfort invariably begins

It’s like strapping on your seatbelt when the airplane hits turbulent air haha it is very helpful for keeping calm and not catastrophizing/immediately bailing

Every time you venture out into this zone you clear more and more unknown factors, you feel less fear because you are more oriented. And then you find you have more space to move around in the (physical, emotional, social, etc) world

Not everything is worth pushing yourself for; if you’re happy in an area definitely cool to stay there. For me sometimes I have zero interest, or the concept is repulsive/causes negative visceral reaction I’m like eh not for me