How to return to your comfort zone

I hear this command a lot, especially in Christian circles: "Get out of your comfort zone." It's a good thing to hear when you're comfortable, but for people like me (who actually jump out) it can be annoying. In England when I'd hear a message exhorting us to step outside of our comfort zones I always wanted to raise my hand and shout, ""I am well and truly out. Now what?" I found that while there was a ton of resources to help people get to the edge of the diving board of faith, there wasn't much for the ones who actually jumped and found themselves flailing in the deep end. What I really wanted was acknowledgement that being uncomfortable is hard and not always very exciting.

In England, though it's a lovely place, I was uncomfortable much of the time. Especially at first. I was uncomfortable on our severe budget and not being able to buy big and wonderful things for cheap (though possibly unethically produced?!) at Target or Trader Joes or Costco like I did back home. It was uncomfortable not having a clothes dryer or a washing machine and paying $1400 for a 200 foot damp Victorian studio (ouch!). But deeper than this I struggled with being out of my element. It's difficult being a bold, direct, smiley and emotive American in a culture that is mildly suspicious of all of the above.

So...blah, blah, blah, England was outside of my comfort zone. BUT...while outside it wasn't ALL irritability and defensiveness. In almost direct correlation to how stretched I was I grew in other ways and in areas I was weak, like simplicity, contentment, quietness, patience and generally being a mores stripped down version of myself. It was all very rich and very good.

So if learning to thrive outside my comfort zone was a theme for four years, right now, back in Seattle and in a place where I'm enjoying familiarity once again, my question is how do I come back?

I'm so glad to be comfortable again, but the challenge now is not losing what I gained out of my comfort zone. I'm not desperately worried about it, but it's something I think about when I'm driving down roads I drove down 15 years ago as a high school student. There's something about being home that feels like I never left and I love this feeling, but I've got to remember that I did leave and what I learned.

I've only been back two months so I'm a work in progress, but here's what's helped me come back into my comfort zone so far: intentionality and accountability. It's a choice to remember not only where I've come from but also where I've been and who I've become. It helps to have Dan here too, my partner for the journey who reminds me (and vice versa) of the things from England we want to retain.

How about you? How have you re-entered a comfort zone after a time away? How did you hold onto what you'd learned while appreciating what you had once again?


{Photo by Cocktail_Hour from flickr}