Hi, I’m Kris Stokes with Custom Fitness personal training studio where your health comes first. Today we’re talking about the negative effects of our comfort zone. I’ve been there, before we opened the studio, I had been a lead trainer at the community college for about 13 years. I had a pretty comfortable position there and God decided to move me out, in the best way possible. I was expecting certain things because I was in my comfort zone of what felt good, and I was probably not going to move on my own to take steps forward towards something unknown and scary. But he stepped in and opened every door that needed to be opened and closed every door that needed to be closed to move me forward to where we’re at today. To have our own studio, to have a team of trainers that can help people.
That comfort zone is something that is very desirable. It’s something that a lot of us live in. Whether that is with our lifestyle, with our food choices, with our health issues, with our family, whatever it may be. We find comfort in these confining boxes, these confining spaces. And what you find is the longer that you’re in those comfort zones, the more claustrophobic they become, the smaller they become. We stop reaching out for change and for variety, and really that’s human nature in general is to hold onto what we know and what we feel good with and not to stretch out into the unknown too much. Well, whenever it comes to health, fitness, wellness, our comfort zone can actually be pretty dangerous thing and can lead to some pretty heavy negative side effects.
A lot of people eat the same foods for breakfast, lunch and dinner. And I can tell you that I’ve had a lot of personal experience myself, my family that has led me to deeply understand the negative side effects of that, that over time our bodies will actually start rejecting those foods. And in such a way that can cause harm to us and not just be that we don’t care for them anymore, but just they can cause physical harm. So, from food allergies all the way up to bigger and worse things. So variety is key, but how do we add that in with our comfort zone, right? Because it’s such a strong hold whenever it comes to nutrition. Well, there’s several ways that we can do that. But first I want to think about also the physical aspect of our comfort zone. If we are in a comfort zone with our physical activity, how can that be of an issue?
Well negatively, that can impact us in that we can lead ourselves into an imbalance. I have a client who has been working with us for a while that has some issues with some imbalanced between the chest muscles, and the back muscles, and it’s caused a huge shoulder issue for that person. And we’ve been working through that and been able to start the improvement process. These things take time after we’ve reached such an imbalance and that’s really what we’re doing with any comfort zone issue is we’ve reached an imbalance, an imbalance of comfort versus a variety, comfort versus stress, comfort versus change. We’re trying to pull inward towards ourselves and let go the outside world whenever we really need to be inviting that outside world, and we need to be changing what we’re doing.
So there’s a few different ways that we can kind of overcome this, but first and foremost is to be aware of it, to understand that you do kind of live within certain restrictions and that you’re pushing yourself further and further back. We have to be aware of that before we can make any changes. And I think that’s true with any change that we do make, we’ve got to be aware that there’s a problem first before we can make changes, so that’s step number one. Step number two is to think outside of our box. It may be scary, but think about the what ifs. What if we could do this? How would that affect us? What if we could change and add something in? How would that affect us? So kind of thinking outside our box, dreaming big, being more than who we know that we can be to step outside of that.
So number three is to start to push your limits, start to add some variety, start to add some change, start to reach outside of where you know that you’re comfortable and if you need to seek help to do that. Because a lot of times, again, as humans, that’s just our natural behavior is to hold on to what we know and to really not stretch too far for something that we don’t. But if we’re in this confined space, we sometimes need some help to come out. And that’s where a team like ours over here at Custom Fitness could help you with that as far as the health and wellness field . We help people to reach beyond what they feel like is currently possible.
Or maybe it’s somebody who thought that they would never quit drinking their coffee or their cokes or they never thought that they could go a day without stimulants like those in order to have energy and all of a sudden they find that their body is able to do these things. So if that’s you, if you’re in a place where you have kind of confined yourself to this comfort zone, but you are ready to acknowledge the fact that there is an issue and you’re ready to step outside of that to find the help that you need, we want to be there for you. So feel free to give us a call, (806) 322-3188, and we’d be happy to help you to stretch your limits and see what you can do.
Just remember that, that comfort zone, while it is very calming is usually not the place to stay forever. So it’s time to start moving beyond. You can keep some memories of it, but staying within those walls all the time will start to create imbalances in your life that can cause harm. So to avoid those negative side effects, just keep pushing forward. Keep stretching your limits and see how far you can go. I hope to talk to you soon.
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