Tell Me Something Tuesday: Leaving My Comfort Zone

Tell Me Something Tuesday is a weekly discussion post where bloggers discuss a wide range of topics from books and blogging to life in general. 

It is co-hosted by (Linda from Book Girl of Mur-y-Castell, Roberta from Offbeat YA, Jen from That’s What I’m Talking About, Berl's from Because Reading is Better than Real Life  and me) 

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Question: Have you ever ventured outside your comfort zone and ended up having a good time?

Answer: Not really but also kind of? lol 

I'm an intensely shy/introvert person with lots of phobias. 99% of life is outside my comfort zone. I hit a point (after losing Fonzi) where it was developing into a bit of OCD (in addition to panic attacks) and sought therapy. I'm not going to get into the whole thing here - but a quick take is that science shows that your brain treats a level 2 threat as a 5 alarm fire and exposure therapy can help retrain the brain to see threats more clearly and respond more appropriately. I try to push myself to do things that are outside my comfort zone more now and it has helped butit's still a struggle at times.  

Pre therapy - but blogging has been an ENORMOUS help to me. Creating a blog and putting myself out there is way beyond my comfort zone and it's turned out to be wonderful for me. I'm terrified of flying, yet a flew to NYC for book cons, I've talked to total strangers like publishers & authors where you have to sell yourself, met other bloggers in person, designed things for my blog. Just ALL very scary for me. 

Since moving to the PNW, I've been pushing myself to tackle my fear of height's - everything fun seems to be near some kind of cliff out here lol I try to make myself have conversations while I'm out and about - but I'm still awkward as hell ha!

I did a cave hike, which scared the shit out of me but I did enjoy that one. Kevin got me a headlamp and was always willing to turn around. Plus it never closed in on me (also claustrophobic). I'm actually really proud of myself for that one! 

Now, do I have fun doing it though?? Not really. I tend to do better when it's still controlled in some way. Like when I went to book cons, I was fine in the crowd but could not handle smaller gatherings, like publisher events where you need to talk in small groups. I'm much better getting lost in the crowd or one on one. And do I like to fly now? Hell no! Still terrified. 

I love the top of the mountains and the views once I get there, but I'm still white knuckling it the whole drive. But I kind of hate the idea that Kevin has to live a smaller life because I'm afraid to do things. He's not afraid of anything lol 

I try to find a balance now. I look for places/drives/hikes that challenge me but aren't on THE EDGE or have railings so I at least have a sense of balance (most places have no railings or safety measures out here).

I just do my best!

Because this is a bookish feature though - I'll add that going outside my comfort zone with books has been successful! Especially this past year when I've veered more to audiobooks. I have found that format matters a lot ot me for certain genres so I'm able to mix it up more and venture beyond my reading comfort zone with great results. 

Welp, that was more than you needed/wanted to know about me lol

Do you venture outside your comfort zone? And has anything good come from it?