Go ahead. Move your yoga mat or change your spin bike! Getting out of a rut is good for you.
From Eileen: We’re having squabbles in my spin class lately. The Fitness Center changed the room, as well as the configuration of the bikes, and that has put everyone in a real tizzy. The room is too hot. It’s too cold. The sound system is too loud. The bikes are too close. The complaining is near record proportions.
Changing the room has really put everyone off their game. It seems that a lot of folks like routine when they exercise. They want the same bike or the same yoga mat or the same route when they run. I can relate to that completely. I like to be in the back of the room near the window during yoga, but off in the corner in the front of the room for Buns ‘n’ Guns. Not sure why, but I get to classes early to get “my” spot. That includes my spin favorite bike. When someone else gets my spot or bike, I am completely derailed.
To some extent, we all like to stay in our comfort zone, but is that really good for us? Mentally or physically? Getting stuck in a routine can be comforting, except when it starts to limit us.
Henrik Edberg writes in the postivity blog, you should get out of your rut … but do it in small steps.
This is one of the best ways to overcome fears and get out of your comfort zone. What holds us back in our zone of comfort is often a fear or that facing that fear straight on might be overwhelming. This is a solution to those two problems. It allows you to stretch your comfort zone slowly making it less uncomfortable and frightening.
If you’re for instance nervous socially you might not feel able to ask people out on dates right away. The fear of being rejected and that others might think less of you if you get turned down can make many of us feel unable to ask the question.
So you take small steps instead. Steps like first just saying hi to people. Or starting to talk more to people online via forums and Instant Messaging. And then trying to be more involved in conversations at work or in school to exercise your conversation-muscles.
I guess one could say that you gradually de-sensitize yourself to social situations or whatever you are afraid of. Or, seeing it in a more motivating light, that you are building courage and expanding your comfort zone in this part of your life (which is something that often seeps over to other areas of life too.)
So, identify your fear. Then make a plan with some smaller steps you can take to gradually lessen your discomfort.
In this post, he also identifies six other steps for stepping out of your comfort zone, including trying something weird and taking a friend with you when you try something new and scary.
I’m game. I’m off to yoga now. Maybe I’ll put my mat in the front of the room!