A window will enrich your life dream by functioning as a portal to daydream.
Does having a comfy place to relax enrich your life dream?
You betcha. When you’re relaxed, it’s easier to conceive the details necessary to fulfill your desire. Take care, though. Comfort is seductive. the coziness of a “comfort cave” can lure you to linger far too long at the expense of your dream.
Contentment is important to your overall good health. When you feel safe and relaxed, you can build up an energy reserve that helps you approach your quest from new and unique perspectives.
It’s no wonder you like to spend time in your comfort area. Especially if it has a window, because windows also function as visual portals to the world on the other side.
If you’ve carved out a comfortable ‘cave’ somewhere, you probably like to spend large amounts of time there. It’s easy to see why.
At the same time, your need for the luxury of ease may prevent you from taking the small steps that bring your life dream into focus. Sooner or later you will need to leave so you can whittle down the items on your life list.
Sometimes I find it challenging to leave my comfort zone. Does this happen to you, too? When languishing in comfort seems more attractive than taking steps to activate your dream, perhaps your toolbox can use a few new strategies.
Time-proven ways to get you up and activate your dream
One way to activate your dream is to review your mental journal for a story you’ve already deposited into your repository of life experience about a dream you successfully realized, and apply the same principles to your current project.
Enriching your dream can be challenging. I understand. The more I succeed at serial relaxation, the more I need to uncover these stories of fulfillment. It’s worth it, though. Occasionally I’ve found that applying time-proven strategies to new quests will bring me current success, like in this story:
One winter, not long ago, I glanced out the window of my comfortable, warm living room and noticed that the world outside was full of snow. It was also bright and beautiful. However, I knew in the back of my mind that a storm was brewing and I had no inclination to leave.
The scene outside was like a natural snow globe. Whiteness was everywhere. It was a wintry scene straight out of my imagination, with the hum of distant snow blowers and wind-blown plumes of snow rising like castles to transfix me in their shimmering magic!
It would have been so easy to hide in my comfort zone. I’d write. I’d read a book. I’d dream about the ever-growing snow bank outside, piling up high, like a magnificent snow beast holding me ransom for a beaker of hot chocolate spiked with chili peppers.
Fantasy is awesome, and reality is oh, so much more
Can you project yourself into the story? Instead of letting the magnificent snow beast hold you prisoner in your comfort zone, look deeply at the scene outside. The snow is falling victim to an invading fleet of whirring, encroaching machines that disturb your stillness – removing the snow everywhere but in your driveway! In quick succession, several things happen:
- Your heart plummets.
- Your dream of comfort vanishes.
- You remember an appointment scheduled for later today.
- Cabin fever roars through your head.
Somehow you have to out-maneuver the increasingly dense, polar onslaught of fluffy white flakes, and clear your driveway – or face the consequences.
You hear a second Code Red Alert in two days demand that residents “stay off hazardous roads and prepare for sub-freezing temps.” You wonder why the cold makes you reluctant to go out and wield the shovel. Judging by photos you snap from your window, sixteen inches of intensely moisture-laden snow are already on the ground.
Good decision making requires looking at all of your options
Immediately you formulate several possible solutions:
- You could wait. Will a neighbor plow the snow? Will someone shovel for payment?
- You can delay action until the situation worsens. Weather reports predict another eight inches!
- You simply must go out now and shovel.
Little do you realize that you have a spiritual revolution taking shape. Your dilemma comes when you try to enrich two dreams that are colliding.
- You want to cozy up to the fireplace and relax with a steaming teacup.
- You also want the opposite: freedom. You want to escape your comfort cave and roar down the open road.
With that realization, you choose the latter. Your energy rises. This time, you will override nature. You will defeat inertia. You’ll open the clogged walkway outside by engaging the secret strategy you use to defeat all overwhelming situations, which includes muttering something like, “I can” under your breath, invoking your virtual support system, and breaking out the sealed bottle of brandy that you’ve stored for years in an abandoned dishwasher just in case you need après-snow shoveling warmth. Your fire is lit!
Grab your motivation by the tail and swing it for all it’s worth
You prepare for this adventure by dressing in warm outdoor layers.
- First, you don three pairs of thermal leggings.
- You tug on two-inch-thick mittens with metallic ski liners.
- You grab your iPod and keys and glance reluctantly at your warm and comfortable chair.
- Why do you feel like it’s the last time?
Before you can change your mind, you quickly adapt these ‘proven to work for me’ strategies:
- You repeat twice, “I can do it. I’m a woman (or man) on a mission. Gloom and doom can’t get me down,” and click your boots together three times.
- You consult your Golden Circle of Support journal cache, guaranteeing you’ll complete the task of snow removal because you engage your sense of hope.
- You keep a lookout for everyday miracles on the flip side of this challenge, where you expect to discover a bright spot, a pot of gold, and/or a new opportunity.
Finding your way around those beastly, bump-in-the-road potholes
Of course, you also notice several pitfalls to overcome.
- Your iPod goes silent every time you jiggle your headphones, and you need music to forget that you’re using the empty dishwasher to store bottles because your sink drain doesn’t work; it floods the kitchen floor; and you abandoned the appliance for repair.
- You have to block incoming images of your comfy, energy-robbing recliner calling you to come back and snuggle with your book.
And you uncover solutions to your obstacles.
- Unlike more weighty tasks, restoring your musical connection is easily done in a small moment.
- You vow to activate your newly kindled inspiration by hiring a repair service for your dishwasher.
Suddenly, sirens sound in the distance. You are running out of time to enrich your dream. Your snow emergency rises in priority.
A powerful “why” snaps into place:
- Your family might need you. Other life crises could arise while the snowfall is inhibiting your ability to drive. You need freedom, and overcoming the deep snow becomes your main reason for taking swift action.
You can think of other barriers to leaving your comfort zone, but your warm winter clothing bolsters your ‘can do’ attitude. Lively music brightens your soul. You mutter, “I can do it,” and lower the huge shovel with a mighty whoosh.
Your solo efforts last for all of three minutes. That’s when, voilà, a hot new neighbor hears you and comes outside to help. Two fellows removing snow next door also see your plight, and pretty soon you are part of an enthusiastic shovel brigade.
Imagine your laughter at holding a “snowparty” without the snowballs. Your three snow angels dig furiously. When the snow finally piles high beside the drive, you bless all of your impromptu helpers with a smile and sweeten your thank you with an offer of brandy. However, none of them will accept more compensation than a simple thank you.
In less than fifteen minutes you are back inside celebrating your victory. You have vanquished the polar vortex. You mumble again, and this time it sounds like, “The shoveling went very well today!”
A treasure trove of rewards waiting to be claimed
Freedom beckons to you from the open drive. You dangle your car keys from your fingers and stare out the window to process what just happened.
- You are surprised to discover that pitfalls also conceal payoffs.
- You look at the flip side and enrich yourself with everyday miracles waiting for you to discover them.
You wonder if there could be other payoffs to having left your risk-free comfort zone. Mentally, you look inward to locate your virtual ‘pot of gold.” Inside it, you find three items:
- You pull out a round gold medal imprinted, For brave mastery of letting other people benefit from helping you,” and wonder, if you confront more challenges with a smile, let go, and plunge in to do your part, would the rest fall naturally into place?
- You finger a silver coin stamped, “Interpersonal rewards for risking interdependence outside your circle of comfort,” and you lessen your hold on independent solitude.
- Last, you extricate a copper coin that reads, “Validation for generating well-informed choices and other potential options,” and you suppress a satisfied grin.
Even your slightest creative dream is essential
Your chosen dream of navigating the driveway may seem minor, but even the smallest details of life can be significant. What about enriching your larger life dream – that of freedom? If you hadn’t acted at exactly that moment, where would you be right now? Stuck inside with no way to keep your appointment? Or outdoors shoveling, freezing, alone in the dark?
You find the answers elusive, so you count your blessings, because it’s the best way of expressing your gratitude for gifts of strength, resiliency, and your savvy knowing that even a kind and gentle soul like you can step away from your comfort zone!
When it’s all over, you need to know you did your best to enrich your life dream
If you want to ensure a positive outcome while you fulfill your unmet dream, ask yourself:
- What is your powerful WHY that activates your life dream?
- How can you defeat the obstacles that prevent you from enriching your dream?
- Where could you take one small step today to feel like you are propelling your dream?
Lowering your window blinds against the wintry glare, you swing your keys proudly into place and walk outside – grateful to leave your comfort zone behind and enrich your dream on this beautiful day!
XOXO Love, Carolyn
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“In the long run, the sharpest weapon of all is a kind and gentle spirit.” … Anne Frank