Hello lovely dream chasers! Welcome to week two of my comfort zone challenge. Showing you how I pushed myself to take those first few steps into the scary world of change.
This week’s topic: Traveling alone.
Okay but let’s take it back a few steps. Let’s talk about me, and think about you! So I’m a weird personality type, I think. I never really felt like I fit anywhere, and I think that’s because I didn’t realize that I was partly introverted. No one ever told me that, how was I supposed to know. The only thing I had ever heard about being introverted was that it was not the norm. So I never even thought to embrace that part of me.
I don’t do well in big groups, I get a lot of anxiety. I don’t do well in new situations; I hate feeling like everyone is staring at me. I love having my alone time, it is where I recharge. More often than not if I am given the option to go out and socialize or sit on my couch and do anything else, I choose the latter. However, if you ask my friends and family, they might tell you I’m the life of the party, like to be the center of attention, like to take charge among other things. Now that my friends, is confusing.
For a long time, I masked my personality and did not embrace the time alone that I needed and I went out in social settings that made me uncomfortable. Until I finally realized, why am I doing this to myself? So I allowed myself more alone time and more time to do what I needed for me to be, me. Okay and long story short… I still had some underlying anxieties that I wanted to fix. Like doing activities in public alone, why the thought of this ever scared me I have no idea. As I sit here in Panera alone in a corner typing this, realizing no one is staring at me, pointing at me, laughing at me. In fact, in all honestly, people walking in probably don’t even notice me sitting here.
When I started dating my boyfriend long distance the anxiety set in that I would have to travel alone to see him. So with a big deep breath I bought my first plane ticket alone and told myself it was going to be wonderful. I sat next to some really nice ladies on the plane and most importantly the world did not implode because I had to sit with strangers.
I encourage you to ask yourself when you are embarking on something that is uncomfortable for you, what is the worst that can happen? And, will that really affect my life in a negative way?