Stretch Your Dang Comfort Zone Already

Hello darlin' (as my grandma would say),

At the end of October, I attended a weekend event called Unleashed in Vermilion, Alberta. Before I get into my story about it, let me tell you a little about the event as it was set up like a choose-your-own-adventure type of experience--how neat and nostalgic is that?!

The itinerary included a few keynote speakers each day interspersed with workshop times throughout. There were a variety of workshops to choose from, with multiple options being offered at each workshop time. I really loved this because it allowed me to get a taste of many different offerings that I have been interested to learn more about, but not eager enough to hunt down to attend on my own.

The workshops that I chose to attend were a cacoa ceremony and sound bath, a past life regression experience, a human design workshop, and a micro-dosing information session. There was a market setup to support local businesses on our breaks, and meals for the event were catered. This event will be happening next year on October 24th + 25th in Vermilion. The details for next year are not hammered out yet, but the website will have information coming to www.cultivatenow.ca 

Back to my story... so months ago, I was asked to lead a workshop at this event and I was challenged to tune in to myself to come up with what I felt would be powerful to share with the participants.

I had initially planned to share the workshop on mindset mastery, but as the event drew nearer, I knew I needed to do something different. I needed to mix it up. I needed to stretch my comfort zone and do something different. 

I talked it out with the organizer and she loved the idea of sharing my knowledge about body awareness and how the body talks to us through our symptoms.

It was decided--but, boy oh boy, did I have some major resistance.

I could teach this topic in my sleep because it is something that I've been mindfully practicing in my life, in my BodyTalk practice, as a MindScape instructor, and as a parent for over 15 years. Yet, I was avoiding sitting down to craft this presentation as if I was going to get the plague! And then when I did finally make space to sit down and tackle the presentation, I was blocked left, right and centre!

It's fascinating to me just how conniving our minds can be to convince us NOT to stretch ourselves. 

My mind said all kinds of super supportive things (*eyeroll + sarcasm*) like:

Maybe you should just give up...

Maybe you should just do the mindset mastery presentation... it is already done after all. 

Maybe youa should cancel and not go to the event at all...

Can you call in sick??

Have you ever had thoughts like this before when being challenged to stretch your comfort zone??

How did you proceed?

Our minds are masters at crafting the most magnificent, convincing excuses to talk us out of something that has the potential to change our lives. That is never going to change, but what can change is your awareness of that inner dialogue, and your conscious choice not to buy into it. The more potential it has to catalyze our lives, the louder our minds are going to yell and scream and try to scare us away from it. 

My mind was LOUD and throwing a bit of a tantrum. I had to stretch my comfort zone in order to create this workshop presentation, and my mind was having a hissy fit about it. 

But WHY??

Well, I had never actually taught about body awareness in a workshop setting like this, so I had to start from scratch and sit with how I would present this topic to people who had potentially never heard of the topic before. Part of me was just not convinced that it was going to matter that much.

Why would this topic be impactful?

How would it catalyze transformation?

How would it unleash anyone from their limits?

SERIOUSLY, KRISTIN?? *face palm*

Sometimes I truly forget that not everyone has the same healing perspective of the magnificent human body as I do. Oh Lordy!

When I was finally able to get my mind to calm the F down, I could get some perspective. I knew my mind was scared.

What if it's a flop? What if no one cares? 

So here's what I told it: "Well you know what, mind, I'm going to do it for me. If no one cares, then oh well... there's not much to lose. I'll do it for myself."

How quickly I forgot how to manage my thrashing mind with comfort zone stretches. (I used to have to lasso my mind to reel it in quite regularly when self-publishing children's books, but I've been off that bandwagon for a few years now and it clearly is showing!)

So, I breathed. I settled down. Then I asked myself: what did I hear when this information was brand new for me that knocked my socks off? 

I had to time travel back to a time when I had never heard of body awareness before and ask myself: What did I need to convey to help people understand that the body talks to us based on our stress, suppressed emotions, and limiting beliefs? What examples did I need to share? What stories of my own could I share to connect the dots?

Once I finally sat down to create my presentation--mixed with some major pressure build-up from serious procrastination--I got out of my own damn way and finally laid out how to share this topic.

And then, can you guess what happened???

Well not a whole lot. I was still discounting the potency of this presentation because it was so second nature to me. 

Yes, I KNOWWW not everyone knows this information  And even for the people who do KNOW that their bodies talk to them, it's one thing to KNOW it and it's a whole other realm to actually implement and embody this knowledge into wisdom and a way of life. 

But part of my mind was still really discounting that my presentation would have an impact. 

Well, when my friend, Selena, messaged me to ask which workshops I wanted to sign up for (because I was arriving late), she told me that my workshop signup sheet was almost full.

My mind said, "HA, ya right. She's gotta be pulling my leg."

Well, she wasn't lying. When I arrived, the whole page was full of names for my body awareness workshop.

HUH. Well I'll be damned. Something that seems so normal for me NOW (17 years after I first began learning about it) could be just the information that could be a lightning bolt of awareness for someone else!

Well that's EXACTLY what happened, and it blew my mind wide open!

As the group started filing into my space, we had to fetch extra chairs to accommodate everyone. There were so many eager people ready with their pens and notebooks. As I dove into my presentation, which included breathwork, a body scan meditation, and timed journaling exercise, there were attendees who had their mouths hanging open in shock, others who had tears dripping off their cheeks, and loads who had questions, insights, and stories to share with me. They were connecting the dots and I could visibly see the shifts happening in these people. 

As much as I tried to stay on time, the attendees wanted more and more. They were hungry to learn all about this empowering topic. Afterwards, numerous people came up to share their experience with me and to tell me how impactful and eye-opening it was!

I was in complete awe and my brain was having to orient to the impact this one hour presentation had on so many people. 

Why hadn't I ever done this before? 

Why hadn't I considered sharing this information?

Clearly it was impactful. 

It has changed ME. It has changed how I understand my body, my mind, my emotions, and my entire sense of self. It has impacted how I parent my kids and how I approach my kids when they have physical symptoms show up in their bodies. 

It's actually mildly INSANE that my mind couldn't recognize this potency.

(It was safer not to). 

All of this to say, that one-hour, comfort-zone-stretching experience CHANGED ME. 

It handed me a perspective I could not see of a skill that I've developed so deeply that it could really be potent, empowering, and life-changing for others, just like it IS for me.

I am taking these insights and utilizing the working on creating this Body Awareness workshop as an online offering and have plans to turn it into an online self-paced course.

If there's one thing that I'm really really good at (basically without giving myself any credit for it), it's understanding the messages from the body, translating them, and helping others learn how to build their own body awareness, too. I'm really excited for what's to come. If you are, too, then I'm really happy you're here!

Stay tuned!

The moral of the story is this: 

STRETCH YOUR DANG COMFORT ZONE ALREADY.

I promise you'll unlock some major magic within yourself!

In your corner,

Kristin