What is the toxic “comfort zone” when we become accustomed to suffering?
These days, we hear a lot about the “comfort zone,” mentioning the importance of getting out of it and the challenges of leaving it aside. We tend to think of the “comfort zone” as a comfortable and safe space, a place where we enjoy being because it brings us well-being, and yet there are many occasions when this zone is anything but healthy for our structure. psychologically.
Harmful comfort zones: a paradoxical reality
The funny thing about comfort zones is that people adapt to discomfort. We automatically and unconsciously habituate ourselves to mental spaces of discomfort, and “toxicity” becomes a normal reality that we experience daily.
We easily settle for harmful habits, subtle addictions, destructive relationships, and negative behaviors, and without realizing it, the “comfort zone” ends up being anything but comfortable.
We prefer to hold on to the known, regardless of the self-destruction it represents. At least that’s what we know and what we’ve gotten used to.
Every negative habit is maintained because it has value. When anger, addiction, existing fears, or isolation are the only resources you can use to cope with discomfort, the mind develops the habit of putting these tools into practice to face any adversity in life.
Maintaining a harmful comfort zone does not make you a “crazy” person. You will use the techniques you know based on your experiences and the past events you have faced.
If your symptoms are “useful” to keep you going, you keep them because you don’t know any other way to respond to your reality. The problem is that harmful forms of coping become unsustainable over time.
Our minds need real well-being, and there comes a point when they scream in their desire to be heard. The habits that used to help you are no longer enough, and it becomes increasingly difficult to maintain negative strategies.
How do you get out of this toxic zone?
Many have become accustomed to the suffering. They think that life cannot offer anything better than what they have already experienced, and therefore, they cling with all their might to what they have already achieved so far.
Leaving the familiar is always a challenge. Even the most harmful habits are difficult to give up. We all fear the unknown, even when we know something much better is waiting for us on the other side of the street.
Fearing the pain that change brings, we tend to stay in the comfort zone that hurts us. We prefer to endure “chronic” and less intense pain than deal with the acute effects that a break with what we have maintained for years can have.
Letting go of your comfort zone is a process, and you will likely need support in finding your new safe place. It’s about generating new resources and finding the healthiest tools that can replace all the coping strategies that have been harming you for years.
It’s about separating yourself from relationships and ways of thinking that don’t build your true identity but minimize it.
The search for well-being is about completely breaking through what you had as a rigid part of your reality and making it flexible to search for what truly leads you to a fully lived experience.
Letting go does not mean that everything is now fine and functioning perfectly or ideally, but rather that you find a more dignified and conscious way of living, both positive and negative experiences.
You will be able to view the same adversities and conflicts from a new pedestal that is more stable than the things you used to cope with.
Remember that you do not have to accept suffering, that persistent discomfort is not normal, and that there are new alternatives within you that you can still dare to explore.