Opening Up Your World

Why every time that I read the title of this post do I start singing ‘Part of Your World’ from The Little Mermaid? If you just got that song in your head, sorry (but also you’re welcome).

Little Mermaid aside, I never really thought I’d be writing a post like this because I’m someone who likes routines and my comfort zones, they make me feel safe, secure and stable. Even when I was little I would literally eat the same foods day in and day out and never get sick of them (peanut butter sandwiches every day for 6 years is serious love). I’ve never had a problem with being like this either, probably because I’ve always had spurts of spontaneity in my life like when I travel for example where I leave my comfort zones and then by the time I come home I’ll happily slip back into my routines and not really notice. Then I read this quote:

My first reaction to reading that? Oh shit. It was like a slap in the face from life telling me to wake up and start living, not just existing. I’ve managed to achieve a lot from within my comfort zones but I’m starting to feel like those days are behind me and it’s time for change. My routines keep me stable but the problem with stability is that you’re in a fixed position, never moving forward.

2017 for me so far has been a year of breaking bad habits and changing my life from something I am content with to something I am actually proud of. It’s about shaking things up, pushing myself, doing new things, having more adventures, letting more people in and not letting my head (thanks anxiety) hold me back from doing the things I want to do.

I am on a mission to expand my world and if this sounds all too familiar to you, here’s how you can too.

Make the most of blogging.
When I first created The Sunday Mode I didn’t know what I was doing and I created posts just for the sake of it. Now I’m blogging with a purpose. No longer will I be too nervous to post something for fear that people will think I’m ‘weird’ or judge me, this space of the internet is going to be carved into something quite special (I hope) that really reflects who I am.

Whether your blog is your job, hobby or passion project, open up your world by making the most of your platform. You have a voice and I’d really encourage you to use it. Figure out if you want your posts to help, comfort, motivate, inspire or teach and work toward that. You can also open up your world by cultivating new skills that relate to your blog, whether that’s polishing up your writing, learning coding or experimenting with photography or photoshop. Take more risks and push yourself to expand your skill set, that way you’re not set in a cycle of doing the same things all the time.

Get out of your head and into the world.
There are thinkers and then there are over-thinkers, I am the latter. If you are too then you’ll probably already know that you spend way too much time and energy pulling apart and analysing situations to the point where you’re spending most of your time in your head and not enough actually out there living your life.

I’m well aware that over-thinking can’t be stopped overnight (if only…) but I know you definitely can’t solve it by sitting at home thinking about over-thinking, oh hell to the no. Get out there in the world and give your brain a break for a while, remembering that what your inner voice or worrisome mind tells you isn’t necessarily true, not even in the slightest. I mean you don’t have to be too extreme about it and suddenly go skydiving, just try not to spend too much time thinking about things to a ridiculous point. Instead, try saying yes more to shut your brain up and break out of those comfort zones.

Learn.
Not necessarily in the academic sense, but I genuinely love that feeling of learning something new. ‘Learning’ is a word that’s got a bit of a bad wrap in the sense that for a lot of us we can automatically associate it with our academic schooling, but really the sensation of learning something new is so damn enjoyable. I mean, I was listening to the My Favourite Murder podcast the other day and I found it interesting to learn about a seedy area of L.A that I never knew about before. See? Nothing like school. You’re never too young or too old to learn new things, it’s just about finding the things you want to learn about.

Personally I think a great deal of people in this world are too close minded and believe their opinions and beliefs are the only ones that count, but that kind of mind frame narrows your world so much. Be open and learn, listen to people’s opinions, read up on different religions, explore spirituality, the list goes on. There is so much information and knowledge out there if you just open yourself up to it.

Figure out what you would do if you could do anything.
Again with our heads, they’re so powerful but they sometimes make us think that we’re cornered and our lives can only go a few ways. What would you do if you could do anything? What profession would you choose if you could pick anything? If you’ve got something in your head, really think about why you aren’t working toward that right now and why you’ve closed yourself off from that.

Don’t let your mind hold you back, once you figure out what you really want in life, start thinking about what small (or large) steps you could take to get you there. Everyone always assumes that there will be a ‘later’ in their lives but the realism of it is that there isn’t for every person. I for one would hate to die knowing I hadn’t actually accomplished anything I wanted to. What on earth is the benefit in not going full force toward what you want in life? I guess what I’m saying is don’t be afraid to step outside of the comfort zones that currently make up your life.

Travel.
My personal favourite way of opening up my world. When you travel to foreign countries especially it’s crazy how much you feel like you’ve stepped outside of this tiny little bubble that is your life. It’s kind of like when you’re in a plane and you look down at the ground, everything seems so small and unimportant. When you’re looking through the clouds down at the houses that look miniature from above, it’s strange to think that someone in one of those houses could be spending their day worrying about something trivial like their broken laptop or something like that. Perspective is probably what you’d call that and travel gives you a healthy dose of it. When you travel you naturally see the world from other people’s perspectives and you see how different your life is from someone else’s across the other side of the planet, that realisation alone is enough to open your mind up to ideas and thoughts that you may never have had before.

(Okay, reading back on this post it does sound a bit like I’ve been watching Eat Pray Love one too many times but hey, what can you do.)

Are you guilty of staying within your comfort zones too much?

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