“What would you do if you weren’t afraid?”  

There are many benefits to overcoming your fears and stepping outside your comfort zone.  Being willing to venture into new territory in your life can result in feelings of self-fulfillment, personal growth and achievement.  It can open up new possibilities and opportunities in your life.  Stepping outside your comfort zone builds self-trust, self-confidence and self-esteem. 

But what if you try to force yourself to do something you have a strong resistance to doing it?  You make excuses and come up with reasons why now isn’t a good time to do it?  Often that resistance is associated with fear – fear of failure, fear of an unintended or undesirable result, fear of not being good enough to accomplish the task, fear of the unknown.  Sometimes those fears (and underlying beliefs) are easily identified, but other times it’s just a feeling without an apparent reason for it. 

What makes walking into the unknown so difficult?

We are all the product of our experiences in life.  In our early childhood years, we accumulate most of our “programming” (beliefs, emotions, values, how we think about ourselves and others) that will guide our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors in our adult years.  If there’s a lingering belief that “I’m not smart enough/good enough/deserving enough”, then your subconscious will do what it needs to do to prevent you from acting in a way that is contrary to your beliefs.  In other words, you may have difficulty pursuing activities that go against your subconscious beliefs.  For example, if you don’t believe you’re worthy of a raise, you may find it difficult to ask your boss for it.  If you don’t feel that you’re good enough/smart enough/talented enough to start your own business, your subconscious mind may throw obstacles in your way – perhaps causing you to get in your own way (often called self-sabotage).   Overriding those beliefs can be difficult because your subconscious mind’s primary directive is to keep you safe, comfortable and “normal”, and it puts a great deal of effort into ensuring a safe outcome. 

So how do you address your fears and open up new opportunities in life?  

Learning to step outside your comfort zone is a process.  If you attempt to use willpower to force yourself to do things that are very uncomfortable for you, your unresolved fear may stay with you every step of the way – because the underlying beliefs have not been addressed.  

Hypnotherapy is a great approach because it works with the subconscious mind to resolve the fears that are holding you back.  It provides an opportunity for the subconscious mind to hold a different perspective.  Once the subconscious mind no longer holds the original underlying belief(s) and releases the fear, the path is now clear for you to move forward.  You can step outside your comfort zone with more confidence – and maybe even a sense of adventure and excitement.  And, in the process, you find that your comfort zone has now grown a little larger. 

If you or someone you know is having difficulty stepping outside their comfort zone and opening up new possibilities and opportunities in life, please contact me to find out how hypnotherapy can help.