Teetering on the Edge

When I moved my website recently, I left behind my old blog posts.  Someone asked if I would be archiving any of them, so I decided to re-post some of my favorites this month.  We are close to the 1 year anniversary of this one and it's a good one.  I dedicate this re-post to my friend and Yoga Teacher, Janine Murphy, for all of your big, beautiful leaps and exploration of new territory.  You are a shining light and inspiration!

How often do you find yourself on the edge of starting something new?  A new thought pops into your head, you get really excited about it, and then that voice inside of you talks you out of it.  Would you say you do it daily, several times a day, more? 

I’ve been thinking about this quite a bit lately.  I’ve been trying to keep track for myself, how many times a day I get excited about a new thought, idea, food to try, exercise to do, habit to change, etc. and how quickly I can talk myself out of doing that thing.  For me, it is usually more than once a day.  When I tell people this, they are often surprised.  They see me as someone who takes on challenges and tries new things.  What they don’t know, is how many times a day I get an exciting thought and I just sit on the fence with it until it blows away in the wind.  So what is that all about?  Why do we do that?

Recently, my husband and I bought 6 adorable, yellow, fluffy baby chicks, and it has been so much fun watching them grow.  We did sit on the fence with this idea for a couple of weeks before taking this big leap.  This week, some of the chicks have discovered how to fly up onto the edge of their container that they’ve been housed in.  I’ve been surprised to see that once they get up there, they stay there.  They can see beyond their container, but they don’t venture out.  A couple of times, during the attempt to land on the edge, they’ve missed and landed outside the container.  When this happens, they just stand there looking around, not sure where they are or how they got there.  If they do move, it is to try to get back into the container with the other chicks.  I have a feeling that the next step for them will be to eventually venture out beyond their comfort zone and start exploring more territory, but for now, they are quite happy just teetering on the edge.

So this has me wondering, is this what humans do too?  Do we like to sit on the edge and observe new territory before we are comfortable enough to venture out beyond our comfort zone?   When we step into new territory, does it feel so foreign that we want to fly back into our comfort zone with our companions who are familiar to us?  If we land in this new territory two, three, four times will we eventually be willing to venture out and explore?  If we do go exploring, how far will we venture out, before we turn around and come back to our comfort zone?   Will we ever venture out so far that our old comfort zone is no longer comfortable when we return to it?  What happens if we are taken out of our comfort zone without any warning?  Will we adapt and how long will it take?

Here are a few affirmations for you as you teeter on the edge:
Today, I will sit on the edge and observe new territory.
Today, I will venture out beyond my comfort zone.
Today, I will enjoy actively exploring new territory.
​Today, I will celebrate spreading my wings and taking flight.