Evoking questions through art
The predictable, familiar, and ordinary all describe what most consider elements of comfort.
The systems and structures that we know, like, and trust, including emotions and thoughts, all fall into a little space often referred to as a comfort zone. Although this space tends to feel safe and secure, the very things that fill it are what keep us contained, conditioned, and vastly unconscious. The longer one stays within that familiarity, the more confining it becomes.
Inside looking out represents change, unfamiliar territory, and unpredictable outcomes – all describing what most consider elements of dis-comfort.
Ironically, everything that leads to personal and collective human expansion, conscious evolution, and overcoming challenges, all require getting uncomfortable. At every stage of human life, we’re existing behind an illusory wall, like a sheet of glass, unknowingly shielded from a world of experiencing higher possibilities, potential, and fulfillment.
If life today feels challenging, confining and full of pressure, could it be that we, as a collective, have been overstaying in our zones of comfort?
Is it time to break through the walls we’ve perceived as safety?
Like the caterpillar, whose destiny is to become a butterfly, or the acorn destined to become a great oak – the natural process of evolution actually causes a pressure too great to remain where they’ve always been. A breakdown in what’s familiar and ordinary takes place, leading to their expansion, greater levels of being and existing.
Undoubtedly, leaving our comfort zone requires us to move into unfamiliar territory, be it physically, emotionally or psychologically… or maybe all the above. It may mean being courageous, bold, often a minority, perhaps a leader, and to go against the grain. It may even mean being ridiculed for stepping out of where the vast majority still are, because you have become conscious and recognize the pattern of change ahead.
Currently, virtually all the structures and systems we’ve known and lived in (for several centuries) seem to be pointing to an inevitable and eminent breakdown.
Everything is fine and comfortable until it no longer is… Just as I referred to above — the longer one stays within that familiarity, the more confining it becomes.
Are you recognizing this, too?
The economy is no longer fine.
The political state is no longer fine.
The medical, education, and financial systems are no longer fine.
“Change is the only constant in life.” – Heraclitus
Resisting change as an attempt to dodge discomfort in life is resisting the very nature of life. It is fundamentally time to get comfortable being uncomfortable.
What if we, humanity, shattered our walls of comfort, stepped fearlessly out into temporary discomfort, to answer our call of doing what we intuitively know is needed? Can we reframe the idea of what used to be uncomfortable into a greater, freer, and expanded place than where we find ourselves now?
Please leave your thoughts and insights in the comment section below and if you found this valuable, please share!
Cited sources and helpful links:
Podcast: The Psychology of Freedom – https://bit.ly/33rhg8G
Prison Planet – State of Mind – bit.ly/2QbnP91
Jason Christoff – Overcoming Self-sabotage event replay – https://bit.ly/3vUoqyr
This is such a powerful painting. For me, the eagle represents the mind. The glass represents the confinement that we rarely see until we can break free from it. When it shatters, others who are paying attention can then fly free also. I see this very thing happening in the world we live in today. The shattering glass is a great awakening to the prolonged confinement of society and humanity. Keep up the great work Tanya!
– Rick
Thanks, Rick. I appreciate you sharing your insights to this piece – that is a powerful perspective – I love it.