Hi, and welcome to your Daily Mindfulness.

Today I'm going to talk about

fear and the flower of growth.

So when it comes to our own

personal evolution and growth,

it's important to step outside of

our comfort zones and routines.

So, what does that mean exactly to

step outside of our comfort zone?

Well, it means stepping out of certainty

and routine and into the unknown.

It means trying something new, taking

a chance without knowing the outcome

and being open to new discoveries.

As human beings, this can be a

challenge sometimes because we tend

to feel a bit of a gravitational pull

towards the familiar and the routine.

This is actually part of

how the human mind evolved.

You know, over the last 200,000 years

of human evolution, most of that time,

human beings lived as hunter-gatherers,

and so playing it safe and staying in

familiar places with familiar people

and in familiar routines helped us

have a better chance of survival.

These days, we don't have to worry

about this kind of thing, but the

human mind still clings to the

familiar out of fear of the unknown.

While there's nothing wrong with,

you know, being inside your comfort

zone sometimes, we do need to stretch

outside it to experience life fully.

So if you imagine like a small circle

and then around it a larger circle.

The inside part is

called our comfort zone.

And just in this zone outside,

it is the growth zone.

This is where we learn evolve and grow.

And the more time you spend in this

growth sewn, the more the boundaries of

possibility for you stretch and things

that were once scary or seemed impossible

can become easy or really normal.

Now outside of the growth

zone is the overwhelm zone.

This is where you're pushed to your limits

and it's just kind of too much for you.

So in that space, we're not

learning and growing anymore.

What we need to do at that point

is usually come back to our

comfort zone for a little while.

Take rest and recovery.

And then when we're ready, we

can come out again into that

zone of growth and learning.

So what you end up with on the journey

of personal evolution is this pattern,

you know, where you have this inside

circle and this pattern where you float

into and out from the comfort zone

and out to the edges of your growth.

So, and that's why they call

it the flower of growth.

So that's really, really normal.

We hit our limit sometimes, we come

back to comfort, but most of the time

we want to be in that growth zone.

So today and the week ahead, try to

notice whether you might need to stretch

outside your comfort zone or in some

way, maybe come back to rest within it.

And if fear is holding you back, seeing

if you can take that brave step, past

the boundaries of your former self, into

new landscapes of possibility and power.

Thank you for your practice

and your presence here with us.

And inviting you now to just begin

to settle in for today's meditation.