Just Call Jenna
Everyone wants to achieve constant growth. Who does not want to unlock the next best version of themselves? However, many people find themselves in a difficult position to do so due to a long list of factors. Some feel stuck and unmotivated, while others are struggling with stress, burnout, and a disconnect with people. What does it take to make a significant expansion and live a truly fulfilling life?
Get your answer to this question here on the Just Call Jenna Podcast. Join host Jenna Williams in unpacking how to create new pathways in your brain and sustain the best life you could have. Tune in to insightful episodes that reveal how to live in a modern society without losing your true and authentic self.
This podcast addresses one of the biggest challenges of self-development. Everyone desires to do more, but nobody can guide them along the way. Without the right mentors or reliable trainers, getting through each day can be demanding and overwhelming. You can easily succumb to stress and even get depressed. These conversations bring every bit of life-changing advice and practical tips you need to realize your most ambitious dreams, get access to better opportunities, and unleash your fullest potential.
Aside from getting that much-needed roadmap towards a better you, this show also goes scientific by revealing the right way to hack the brain – a complete inspirational expansion. Bringing data-based approaches and mindfulness, discover how to rewire your survival thinking and get rid of your negativity bias in favor of nonstop growth and an optimistic mindset. This is your chance to fully understand how your brain works in its own unique way, address the limiting beliefs holding you back, and do a full-scale “reboot” if your situation really calls for it.
On top of that, the podcast is your trusted guide in putting knowledge into real action. Find out how reading books, listening to podcasts, and consulting all kinds of resources out there can be applied to real-world experiences, and in turn, lead to real-world results. Discover how you should work to actually change your life and expand the limits of what you can do.
Your host Jenna has gone through these inspirational expansions herself. After surviving a stroke at 45 in 2023, she had to relearn everything – from how to speak to how to walk. This changed the course of her life forever. Jenna embraced a fully rebooted version of herself and transformed her lifestyle for the better. She hacked her brain, put every bit of learning she has into actual action, and did everything in her power to cast away all of the negativity in her body.
Now living as Jenna 2.0, she uses her storytelling skills to share her journey with the world, help others escape being stuck, and address their most challenging hurdles. Inspired by the many lessons she has learned so far and the experiences that molded her identity, she now serves as an inspiration for living a well-designed life free from stress, regrets, and insecurities. This podcast is a testament to everything she went through and your roadmap for doing exactly what she did.
Living your life is easy. What is more challenging is living it with purpose and intention, making every single second and moment count. Nobody wants to deal with stress all the time, nor remain disconnected from the rest of the world. If you do not want
Just Call Jenna
Courage Beyond Comfort
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Episode 7: Courage Beyond Comfort
In this powerful episode, Jenna Williams explores what it really means to choose courage over comfort—and why your brain often resists growth even when you know it’s time to move forward. Jenna explains how the brain is wired for safety, not expansion.
Comfort feels protective because of loss aversion and the amygdala’s fear response—but staying comfortable comes with a silent cost: lost potential, lost alignment, and lost time.
Drawing from neuroscience and her own healing journey, Jenna shows that courage doesn’t require fearlessness. It requires small, intentional steps. Growth happens through what she calls “small experiments”—gentle stretches beyond familiar patterns that teach the brain a new definition of safe.
She also breaks down three invisible brain forces that quietly influence decisions: negativity bias, regression to the mean, and the sunk cost fallacy.
From locking onto one critical comment despite twenty glowing reviews, to believing a bad week predicts a bad life, to staying invested in something that no longer fits simply because you’ve already invested so much—Jenna reveals how awareness disrupts these mental patterns. Once you see them, you can choose clarity over fear.
Through practical reflection prompts and her signature five-minute awareness practice, Jenna invites listeners to meet themselves where they are, question the loudest negative narrative, recognize temporary dips for what they are, and reassess where they may be holding on out of habit rather than alignment.
The episode closes with a grounded reminder: expanding your comfort zone doesn’t require dramatic leaps. It requires stepping into what researchers call the “stretch zone”—just far enough beyond comfortable to activate growth without triggering panic.
Over time, those small deviations rewire what your brain defines as safe.
If you’ve been waiting to feel ready, this episode reminds you that courage isn’t about eliminating fear—it’s about gently retraining your brain to see growth as safe.
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Welcome back. Today I'm going to talk about getting the courage to move beyond comfort.
Part of it I think is you need to understand comfort zones. Your brain is wired to stay safe. It will constantly move you back to where it's comfortable. That could be through self-sabotage. That could be on purpose, but your brain is desired Its desire is to stay safe. It wants to return to what's safe. It says, stay here. This feels good. Don't do anything different. We know how to be here Don't don't move on. Don't grow. It wants you to stay safe.
So I think you need to understand that, that you are going to fight yourself as you try to expand. Being aware of that will probably be the most helpful piece of this. Expanding a comfort zone will create additional safety. Think about it like you have this little circle and you expand it. You're gonna teach your brain to be safer with more room to expand. The easiest way to do that is small experiments. What does that mean? Little teeny small things that will help you grow. For me, I like to think about things in a priority one, two, three environment.
So when I was learning how to walk again, this is where this technique came in. They were saying the goal was as I started improving. Well, now that you can walk across the room without a walker, you can't couldn't stand up without one, but I could walk across the room They were like, now we want you to get to a mile. And I was like, are you crazy? Like I can't even walk around the block.
So I decided if that's the goal and that's what I need to get to How do I break that down? I mean, my body didn't want to respond. My brain knew that I wanted to get better, but it fought to keep me where I was at. Priority one, two, three made sense.
So walking across the room without a walker was priority one. So that might have been that I got up to walk every day. I wasn't allowed to walk by myself yet because there was fear of me falling and getting hurt. I had to walk with somebody. So priority one was we would be walking around the court and I would have them Take my walker and move it three driveways ahead of me, and I would walk to the walker. Priority two was I would walk with a cane. Priority three is I would walk down my driveway into the edge of the court, which was about one house, with my walker, because that's all I had.
So think about that for a minute. I'm firing on all cylinders. I have all my strength. If you've heard my story, they didn't even in the beginning let me take a shower on the same day that I was walking. My body could not do mouth. I did not have the physical strength to do both in the same 24-hour period. But I could do the walk at the same time every day. I went with my walking partner. Luckily that was my mother. Bless her soul for taking care of me.
Now, then that next became stretching that comfort zone to let's say it took 90 days, 60 days, whatever. But then as we started improving, priority one came that I would just walk holding her arm. Priority two was I would take the cane. And priority three was we would just walk to the end of the driveway or the end of the court. And before you know it, I was walking around the block without holding on to my mom, no cane, no walker But that's how it works. I had to stretch the comfort zone.
My brain went into full-on overwhelm thinking about when they said, yeah, now we'd like you to walk a mile without holding on to anything. I fought too hard to get here. Now you want me to go further? And that's part of what they do medically. They give you challenges and ask you to live up to them. But there's no real way to get there. It's overwhelming. How do you bridge that gap? Well, you start by like priority one, two, three I'm going to consistently get up and create this habit loop.
I needed the habit loop that forced me to walk every day. Now, some days it was with a cane, some days it was with a walker, some days I was firing on all cylinders, and I could just hold my mom's arm. And then before you know it, we were walking around the the block And I was carrying the leash to my dog, who by the way is a hundred-pound German shepherd. So if she wanted to pull, I'm going right over. But I trained myself to get there. It wasn't like it happened overnight. I had to stretch the comfort zone because on day one, walking a mile was impossible. I mean, I can do it now. I can take my dog on a two-mile walk, which seemed impossible two years ago
But I think that's what you have to understand is stretching the comfort zone by giving yourself a priority. One, two, three. You have to consistently show up. and work on just expanding that comfort zone. Your comfort zone is like a container I talked about in another episode. You have to stretch it to make room for more so that your brain will not fight to keep you stuck
Your brain is wired for safety. Loss aversion is neuroscience. So in the brain, you have to understand what loss aversion is That fear of overwhelm, that thing your brain fights, it's loss aversion. It tricks us into thinking safety is neutral. But it's not. Safety keeps you right where you're at. It keeps you from growing. It keeps you from becoming more. We all have a need to want to grow We, you know, some of us have more of a growth mindset. Others of us are just happy to have what we achieve, but the brain gets stuck.
Loss aversion is neuroscience. Your brain is wired for safety. So we cling to comfort because we crave that comfort. It feels good. Well let's talk about what loss aversion really is Lost aversion is the piece of your brain that is known for it hurts more to lose $100 than it does to gain $100. Think about that for a second. If you lost $100, how that feels, that pit in your stomach, oh, I just lost that. That hurts more than the win of gaining $100. You won $100. Sure, feels good. But it feels twice as bad to lose 100. That is loss aversion. You have to understand that that's what your brain does
You're biologically wired to try to keep yourself safe. This is why comfort zones exist. The courage to get beyond it. Is that priority one, two, three? It's I am going to choose one of those priorities every day and consistently do it. The brain is going to repeat it. The more you repeat it, the more the brain is going to want to do that. You are biologically wired to avoid loss. That's just knowing how your brain works. You can work with it or you can work against it.
Understanding that loss aversion and the combination of keeping you comfortable are how your brain is going to fight you getting better, growing, however that may look. The amygdala is your brain's fear center You don't have to be fearless, but you're just going to fear less. That's all. I don't have to be fearless. I'm just going to choose to fear less
I'm going to tell my brain I'm going to fear less. And you know what? It's going to filter in all the more reasons that I'm not fearful. All the reasons that I can have courage because I'm choosing to fear less. Just like before in an episode when I talked about a client who trained himself to be happy. You're doing the same thing. That's comfort. That RAS filter that I talk about a lot.
Think about that as you might be easier and more comfortable to say, I'm not fearless. I just choose to fear less. I am becoming somebody who fears less. That's not just personal growth. It's natural evolution. It's it's literally evolving yourself to the next level because you're expanding that comfort zone while bypassing the fear center.
Every time you choose comfort, Overgrowth, there's a silent trade-off. Might be feel more comfortable today, but there's a silent trade-off. You keep yourself from growing, you keep yourself from your potential, you keep yourself from shining. Even brighter. Many of us are at a place in life where we're okay with where we got. We've done a lot of work to get here Great, congratulations. I applaud you. I've done a ton of work to get here too. Our stories are different, but congratulate yourself for all you've done.
But you are now in a comfort zone and to grow, to evolve, to raise to your higher vibration, to raise to your higher self. You have to stop choosing comfort and knowing that your brain is going to fire in the amygdala and try to keep you safe because it's fearful. It's fearful of change. Change is inevitable.
I had to choose growth and not comfort. That was literally life or death for me. I pray that none of you have to go through that. I was healing. Fully uncomfortable in every way. It wasn't just heal and learn to walk again. It was like while you're doing it, please create a whole new lifestyle and a whole new version of you. Please let the old you die and stop repeating those habits so that new you can emerge. Because if you don't do that, life or death.
You want to talk about uncomfortable? Try facing life or death. I had to learn small steps. Those priorities, one, two, three. Filtering in. I'm happy. I'm peaceful. To this day, one of my mantras is, girl, today you are to stay hydrated and not raise your blood pressure. Which kind of is my version of if it takes my piece, it's too expensive Because you know what? Ending up back in a hospital with my heart not working or my brain not functioning, I am not willing to do that.
You want to talk about my amygdala fire and off in fear? That's my unhappy place That is my terrible place that I will never go back to. I pray none of you ever have to live through that. But I had to start acting like the healed version of me. That priority one, two, three, made it manageable on the day-to-day, minute by minute, hour by hour. I was getting better. But if I focused on how was I gonna walk around that block, my brain went into full-on tilt again. I went into fear and I got stuck. I could get frozen in place from it
But I think that's how comfort works. You just have to stretch a little bit. Your comfort zone is a container within you. You can stretch it a little bit. I mean, sure, it sounds great to be somebody new. Again, if you got the Hutzbah to go sell off everything and run away to a mountain and reinvent yourself I applaud you. I I don't have that in me. I'm not willing to do that today. Maybe later.
But I think that most of us are repeating much of what we did the previous day, many of our goals might still be the same. Just think about priority one, two, three. Stretch your comfort container a little. You don't have to shatter it, but you can stretch a little. You can find one, two, three. Maybe don't try to take on every container at once. Just pick something. That thing that's been bugging you all the time in your five-minute practice, that thought that keeps coming up, that is you talking to yourself and saying, hey, I want this to change.
Maybe just try to change that one little thing Figure out what's priority one, two, three. What can you repeat? It will stretch your comfort zone. It will calm down the amygdala in your brain until it stops fighting. I'm not fighting a saber tooth type girl, I'm just walking an extra driveway. But that's how you're gonna find the courage to stretch beyond comfort. And the more you do it, the more comfortable you're gonna get.
So when you're thinking about comfort zones. It helps me to understand there are three invisible forces in the brain. They are what you're fighting against. It's like walking uphill. When you're trying to change, understanding these things is really important.
Number one in the brain is something called the negativity bias. Let's break that down. You are wired to lock onto the negative Your brain is designed to find the negative. Let me tell you a story. I had somebody I worked with who was a musician, went to play a show, had 20 fabulous reviews. Great reviews. One was like, you're overrated, wish I had never gone.
This person locked on to that negative review. no thought or recognition for the twenty fabulous reviews that people wanted to come back and hear them. They locked on to that one negative review so hard they almost cancelled the upcoming show. That's the negativity bias in the brain. It's that old thing that maybe you've heard before that it takes three to five positive things to outweigh one negative. So that's your amygdala. It fires, but the negativity bias in the brain sets it off. And when it's set off, it's going to lock onto the negative.
So understanding how to stretch beyond comfort, you sort of have to understand that your brain is going to go to the negative. Of all the things out there, your brain is wired to lock onto the negative. So all this positive we're trying to do Fill ourselves with good thoughts, train our brain to see happiness, all the other things we're doing. And I'm I'm really proud of you for trying, because it's not easy. It's not easy to change, but you're doing all that, and your brain is still trying to force you. Back into that comfort zone with negativity bias. It's looking for all the negative reasons why you should stay comfortable.
I need you to understand that and I need you to fight it a little bit I think that you need to understand it takes three to five positive thoughts to counteract one negative. That is the negativity bias. You're biologically wired for that. There's nothing wrong with you. Everybody's brain works that way.
Regression to the mean is another one to understand. This is more of a statistical thing, but there are outliers. Over time you will regress back to the standard. Have you ever had a terrible week? When it rains it pours? Um, you know, it's all of that. But you've been there. You've had a terrible week. It rains, it pours, everything goes wrong. Your spouse yelled at you, your boss was a jerk, your kid fought with you, car got a flat tire. Name it. It's the downward spiral. It happens
Those things are actually considered statistical outliers. Extreme highs and lows naturally drift to the average over time. Like if you look at athletes' stats, right? Most of them regress to where they are. Sure, there's outliers. There's super talented people. I personally have no athletic ability, but I find the ones who do fascinating. Wish I could, but I will regress back to the me that I am. Now, there will be outlying days. I mean there's plenty of those stories. David and Goliath, the underdog wins, but statistically you will regress back to the mean. There are outliers
Your brain will make up dramatic stories. It will make up dramatic things. So your worst days are rarely indicators of how your life is going. And congratulations, you've survived 100% of your bad days. Do you remember having those moments when you thought nothing good would ever happen? Oh, this is gonna fall apart
I remember somebody that broke my heart when I was younger. You know, name that sad song. I was singing it in my brain. I grew up in the 80s, so there were lots of great love songs. Broken heart songs. But yes, to this day, I can think about that person and it still hurts. But over time It gets easier. That outlier thing, I took that personally. That person broke my heart. I thought I was never gonna be lovable again. And it turns out I'm loved by a lot of people. But that was an outlier.
Regression to the mean is you will come back to the most common, right? You will come back to your comfort zone. That's kind of how regression to the mean works Understanding that is really important with the negativity bias. Don't let that negative thing drag you down or make you think that that's life. It's temporary. Remember I've told you, my Angelo said, every storm runs out of rain. Regression to the mean is it will come back to the average over time. There are outliers, but that's regression to the mean. It's important to understand.
A third one that I think is hugely important to understand, and I think every human being is guilty of this, it's called the sunk cost fallacy Your brain wants completion. The belief that you should keep investing time, money, resources. into something because you've already invested in it. Like how many times are you like, okay, I've I spent all this time and money on this, I'm gonna keep going. Well maybe it's not in your best interest
Maybe that's not the negativity bias. Maybe that's not regression to the mean. Maybe you should just give it up. Now, that's not to say give up on everything, but you have to ask yourself Is that still serving me? Is that in my best interest? Sacrificing your future for your past is probably not a good idea.
Your brain hates the idea. It hates the idea. It hates the idea that it committed it invested. And it wants it to mean something. Remember, your brain makes up dramatic stories. It wants it to mean something. It's got meaning. I spent all this time on it. Well, maybe that's not the best thing anymore So you need to ask yourself, is this in my best interest?
For me, here's the science of it. In your brain, there is the striatum. It's the part of the brain that tracks rewards and lights up when we complete things. That part is kind of like a I think about it like it's a little drug addict. If it's not complete, it's gonna have a case of the fiends. It's gonna need that hit. So you have to ask yourself in this sunk cost fallacy, is this something I would choose today?
So understanding that. Your brain is making up dramatic stories. It's going to the most negative possible thing it can. No matter how positive and optimistic you are, the brain has a negativity bias. The brain will regress to the mean regardless of what stories it's making up, and it's going to hate that you didn't complete a task. But you have to ask yourself, is this a sunk cause? Should I quit while I'm behind? Versus should I quit while I'm ahead? Should I quit while I'm behind? How much further?
I like to think of it as one of my favorite lines is When you're in a hole, stop digging. So you have to ask yourself that with the sunk cost fallacy. The negativity bias tells us that the worst things are true. Regression to the mean tells you that your lows are permanent, but they are not. And the sub cost fallacy tells you to stay when it no longer fits you
I think if you understand those things and you understand that they are weights holding you down. No matter what, you can't set those weights down. They are just biologically wired in you. You can make them easier to work with. You can understand, huh? I noticed that I'm seeing this negative side. But you can start processing from clarity rather than fear. You can process clear thinking and understanding versus letting these negative, fearful things come in. I think that's really important to understand.
So these are the three really important things in the brain. Understanding that it's got a negativity bias. Right? It is going to fire that like, hey, this is the worst thing. One bad thing happens and It's mountains out of molehills. You are going to take that and run with it. Oh, I'm super guilty of that. My negativity bias is strong. But I think understanding that helps me, it really does help me just be aware.
That again, losing $100 hurts a lot more than winning $100. But that's the negativity bias. Something negative happened. I need three to five positive things just to get back to zero. Not to get ahead, but just to get back to zero. Somebody said something that hurt my feelings. I need to go find three to five good things just to get back to where I was to begin with. Right, that's it. So I can regress to the mean. What is my zero?
There will be outliers. That person Will say the worst things to me. I've had some of the people I care about the most say some pretty horrible things to me, just like I'm sure all of you have. So you have to go find those positive things to get yourself back. You will regress to that average no matter what.
And understanding the sunk cost fallacy, your brain hates not completing tasks. And it wants it to have a meaning, but sometimes letting it go is the best thing. That's getting beyond comfort. Are you gonna spend your time, money, and resources on something that is not serving you Ask yourself in your meditations, is this something I would choose to start today?
I had a habit that previous to the stroke, I think I had spent hours every year on. I mean it wasn't a total habit, but it was like a side hobby. It was a side quest. And when I was healing from the stroke, I was like, huh. I kept feeling like the time, money, and resources I spent on that, I should keep going. It was like a side quest, right? It wasn't a daily habit, but it was there. I had invested time, I had bought supplies, I had a plan. My brain wanted to complete that task, but it was not serving me.
I'd been doing it for so long, it was just something I did on the side. And then asking myself, would I choose to start this habit today? No, I didn't. I ended up taking up reading in that time space. Well, now I read probably thirty to fifty pages a day, which is pretty close to a hundred books a year, and I had that space for something new to come in, but that's the sunk cost fallacy at work I had invented invested time, money, resources towards this side quest, and I gave it a new one Which actually ended up serving future me a lot better.
So now that we've understood some of the things that your brain fights you on, I want you to think about meeting yourself where you're at. I want you to be aware of future you. I want you to be aware of who you're becoming, but to really stretch the comfort zone, meet yourself where you're at. Find where you're comfortable today. Keep moving in the direction of future you. What are you becoming? Tell yourself you're becoming that. Every day I was getting better. Now I'm a success in progress. And I keep myself where if it takes my piece, it's too expensive. You can find what mantras work for you, what things you tell yourself, you're gonna train the filter in your brain. That's really important
But I need you to meet yourself where you're at. I need you to just be proud of yourself for how far you've come. Stop focusing on how far you have to go. The negativity bias in your brain is gonna want you to do that. How about just say, here's where I'm at today. Today is okay. You are enough. It is amazing how enough you are. Think about that. Meet yourself where you're at. There's room for growth, but that doesn't mean today you is not good enough. You are 100% good enough just for existing.
So when you think about that, notice one place where the negativity bias is speaking up. Notice it Where do I constantly beat myself up? What is the thing I tell myself every day I'm not good enough at? That is the negativity bias. It's getting the loudest. Question it. Why do I feel that way? Why am I talking to myself that way? What would I like to be different? Just simply notice where it's speaking the loudest and question it. That's it.
Remember your five-minute daily practice. Now I'm gonna ask about that thought Where is this creeping up? Where is it louder than all my other thoughts? And just question it. That's all you're gonna do.
Notice in the one place where you're in a temporary dip. Give yourself some grace. Hey, I had dreams of being X by now. I should be here by now. We've all done it to ourselves. How about give yourself a little grace? It's just a temporary dip. You've been working hard at this, whatever it is. You've been working hard at it. Maybe even in places nobody saw. Give yourself a little grace. You're enough just ashar The negativity bias in your brain is telling you that you're not. But you are.
Meet yourself where you're at. Where you're at is just okay You can look to grow, but you don't need the pressure to be perfect. You don't need the pressure to change overnight. Just meet yourself where you're at. You're okay just as you are. Knowing these things will make you better. But you don't have to be better today. You just have to make steps in the right direction.
Notice where you're holding on because of a past investment. Ask yourself if you'd choose that today. Remember in the sunk cost fallacy, right? I've invested time, money, resources into this habit. I should keep going. Well, maybe not. Ask yourself, would I choose to start this today? It might have served a past version of you, but it's not necessarily serving future you. So ask yourself, meaning myself where I'm at today, would I choose to begin this habit today? Maybe you would, maybe you wouldn't. That's your choice. That is your definition. Just observe how you feel about it.
Because Your brain, remember, wants you to complete the task. If you started something, I am going to do X. Like I don't know what it is. I'm gonna learn how to play chess. And now I'm gonna be a chess master. Well, maybe not. Maybe you really didn't like chess as much as you thought you would. I personally like chess, but I think you have to think about that. Would I choose this today? Meet yourself where you're at. Give yourself a little grace.
I want you to think about that five-minute practice that you've been doing. I want you to look To maybe try to get that to 10 minutes. Can you find 10 minutes? You've been consistently doing the five minutes. Now can we expand to 10? Add in some room to think about this. Where is the negativity bias speaking? Where is something that you've invested in that maybe you didn't? And can you give yourself a little grace? Can it be okay that you're not where you want to be yet? And that's okay.
You are here. You have survived everything you've been through. Some days were great, some roads were tough. But you are here. You are okay. You are enough just as you are. It's amazing how okay you really are. Just okay. That's fine. That's your regression of the mean. You are gonna get back to okay. That is the average you want over time. Some days are going to be great, some days are going to be bad. There is always statistical outliers, but if you can meet yourself where you're at. That's your average.
And when you get that comfort zone, now you can find the priorities one, two, three, to shift it. That's how it works. It's not rocket science. It does take a little bit of effort, but give yourself some grace. Allow yourself room to be human. Just be human. That's it. Meet yourself where you're at.
And there's some easy ways to grow your comfort zones. So I had somebody I worked with that had social anxiety. She's an introvert, not extroverted like me. I can walk into a room and be friends with everybody. She walked into a room and it just took everything out of her. It physically drained her.
And so, with that social anxiety, we tried to find what could she do in her comfort zone that could make a switch. She had this habit of there was a coffee shop that she would stop at, On the way to work, get a coffee, go to work. Same people, same parking spot, same everything, right? But we found one small difference she could make, and that was her experiment was to for 30 days just order her coffee different every day.
So, of course, that's only work days, but every day she had to stop, order her coffee different. It got her talking to the barista, asking about flavor syrups. Questions. Normal life happens. But that is how we expanded her comfort zone. After thirty days, she was going to other coffee shops that she had never been to before. Some mom and pop, some chaints, or whatever. But she got comfortable. by ordering the coffee different every day. It's a teeny tiny simple thing, but that's how we grow comfort zones
You meet yourself where you're at and you find out what is the one change you can make. Your comfort zone didn't expand. It gently stretches to the container to hold it So remember the priorities one, two, three, meet yourself where you're at and find out what is that teeny tiny thing you can stretch to not fire off all the pain pain centers and fear centers in the brain. The brain's gonna fight you.
How do you tell it this is okay, this is safe, because it is going to regress to the mean or get back to that comfort zone. That's going to happen. Whether consciously or subconsciously, that's what's going to happen. There are outliers, but you are going to go back to what you're comfortable with.
Researchers call it the stretch zone. One step beyond comfort that can help you stretch the comfort zone. You know, the sweet spot, it activates your prefrontal cortex, that's decision making, and the dopamine system in the brain, which is the progress, and it calms the amygdala So you give yourself a reward, you get back into better decision making, and you turn off the fear centers of the brain. That's the sweet spot. That's how you stretch your comfort zone
So maybe you're the client of mine who could go order her coffee every different for a day. Okay, maybe that's the experiment. You can figure out where it is that you want, but I think the thing is as you've expanded your practice from 5 to 10, start figuring where you're at. Shakespeare said, know thyself, right? So that's part of it. Where am I at? Where am I comfortable today? And that's okay. I'm okay right where I'm at. It's 100% okay that I'm right where I'm at.
But where can I look to make a small change that will stretch me? Where's that sweet spot in the stretch zone where I'm not fighting my brain? I'm actually working with it. I'm not fighting my habits. I'm actually working with it to create new ones. It's that little teeny bit. That's the part that matters.
We don't have to look for the anomalies, the complete outliers. Sure, those are great. We love the underdog stories, we love the David and Goliath. Those are fabulous. The hero's journey that makes movies exciting? Perfect But those are not real life every day. You can have those moments in life. I recommend them. They feel good. but understanding that sweet spot and stretching it.
Like the client I had that I asked him to carry around a rock and train himself to be happy, just looking for reasons to be happy Those are the stretch zones. Those are the sweet spots. They calm down the brain. They give it that dopamine reward center that says, oh, this is good, more of this. And it turns off the amygdala.
So you stop Thinking you're fighting yourself, right? You can get into the prefrontal cortex that allows decision making to happen. you can decide to make a small shift because if you decide to make a big one, you're fighting yourself just like you're a saber-toothed tiger. Biologically, you are doing the same thing
So let's find the sweet spot. Let's find the stretch zone. In that 10 minutes that you have, just ask yourself, where am I at and where would I like to be? and break that into priority one, two, three, so you can just make a tiny shift. Don't try to make a big shift. Just go for a tiny one. You will compound that over time. That's how you stretch a comfort zone.
Now that we've stretched our comfort zones, thanks for joining me for another week Remember, karma is real, energy is contagious, and vibes matter.