My Comfort zone has vanished — AGAIN!

Beware! Once you pass your comfort zone, keep going!
There is no turning back!

No worries, you will reach a new comfort zone — although it might be a while before you arrive.

Take heart; expansion, growth and change are what you wanted.

You wanted to go beyond the places you’ve been before, to "Feel the Force”, the pull of new adventures.

Feeling the excitement of new adventures is not the same
as going on those great adventures.

There are always ups and downs on the great adventures we read about in books or watch in movies.

In life, these ups and downs take longer to experience.

Momentum is a powerful neutral force — yet a force nonetheless.

Inertia is an opposing and equally powerful force.

I think of inertia as more of a negative force, but maybe it’s just HEAVY. It takes powerful lifting to get moving once inertia has set in.

Fear is often the force behind my inertia.

When I’m afraid to take action — which often means I’m afraid to start a new project, inertia digs in its heels.

Dread is one of Inertia’s best friends.

The emotional space that Dread occupies is immense.

Dread and fear dance maniacally round and round, eating up precious moments and consuming vast amounts of time and energy.

Awareness is key, and is the first step to conquering Dread, Fear, and Inertia.

Once we realize the crazy “do-si-do” going on in our brain (and stomach), we can devise tools to “stop the music”.

Changing our focus helps us to change our thoughts. Once we’re looking at something different (a new novel or movie), or we’re exercising, our focus softens and relaxes.

With relaxation and a calm breath, comes the power
to change our thoughts.

Changing thoughts, whether or not they’re related to the cause of our dread/fear/inertia (“D/F/I”), helps move us into a neutral zone.

From a neutral zone, we can reach for better feeling thoughts in general and eventually to thoughts about the cause of our “D/F/I”.

From here we take action, even the tiniest action will help.

Before you know it, momentum takes over and you’re back in business.

This painting was started in front of my Hide-N-Seek watercolor class at Hawaiian Graphics. I wanted my students to see what it feels like to create a painting that's asking to be painted. It's a very different energy to paint something that's calling you rather than painting something just for the sake of painting.