Personal Growth & Discomfort
People talk a lot about personal growth, and I by no means have the qualifications to ‘professionally’ guide you through it. But I do have the means to share my own experience with personal growth.
Whether this resonates with you or not, I hope you enjoying reading this one!
Piglet: “How do you spell ‘love’?”
Pooh: “You don’t spell it…you feel it.” —Winnie-the-Pooh
-being too focused on how things work or why, trusting your gut, even if it’s scary
I am a big fan of putting yourself in previously perceived ‘uncomfortable’ situations to spark personal growth.
After coming out of a relationship feeling like I prioritised them and their feeling above and beyond my own, to the point that I didn’t really know what I liked or disliked, or, who I was anymore. I should mention, to no fault of him, I just was so prepared to put him first that I lost sense of myself.
Anyway, that’s a whole other story, but a good brief introduction to this one.
My way of forcing myself into a space of personal growth was to throw myself in at the deep end.
My theory was, okay, so if i’m trying to figure out who I am, let’s join a dating app and go on dates with strangers, but not drink alcohol so I am forced to be ‘myself’. It actually worked out pretty well, and I learned a LOT about myself and started figuring out who I was again, by just, being myself and not hiding behind anything.
My next step on this ‘outside my comfort zone’ mission was to take a trip by myself, fully alone. I’d been fortunate enough to travel with work and friends, but I’d never just taken some time for myself in another country before.
So, off the back of a work trip to Buenos Aires, I decided to take 3 days (it’s all I had before having to be back in England for work, plus this was a first so a little scary) and go to Patagonia.
This was off the back of a recommendation from a friend based in Argentina, and I just googled it briefly and booked it. Without any thought. I didn’t make a plan, at all. In fact, I’m pretty sure I booked my hotel the day before I flew out from BA to El Calafate. When I say hotel, I mean, it was a B&B. I wanted somewhere super simple that would force me out of my comfort zone to go and explore, rather than being tempted to stay in the hotel. So I booked onto an excursion to Perito Moreno, hiking on the glacier, complete with chocolate and whiskey, which was as dreamy as it gets really. The colours of the ice were exquisite.
The second day, haha, was a little bit of a challenge as cash points only have a certain capacity for notes in Argentina, and since inflation, many cash machines run out of cash by a Friday or Saturday. So, I needed cash to pay my hotel, it was a national holiday, so I spent the day cashpoint hunting, (because I am one of those people who doesn’t take cash out when they get to a new country!). From this though I got speaking to loads of other adventure-seekers, and finally managed to change some English pounds for an extortionate rate at a bar in an under the table exchange!! (You can’t make this up)
Anyway, lesson learnt (kind of not really as I have a similar story from a trip to Cuba!)
BUT I did learn that I’m pretty darn good at adapting to a situation and being resourceful! So that was a fun learning curve in itself.
I took myself for a walk up to the lake, with a backpack full of vegan snacks, and just sat there, journalling, meditating and watching the pastel colours of the sky melting together as the sun set.
Anyway, day three, and I’d booked to go horse riding in the mountain tops. We went on the ride and it was a boiling hot day, it was beautiful but I felt like the horse was distressed and uncomfortable with all of the tack on. I casually mentioned to the person running the ride that I would love to ride bareback in the broken banks to let him cool off. At the end of the ride, he pulled me aside and mentioned that if I wanted to go out again to come back in an hour.
So I went back to my B&B, packed up my bags as I would be having straight for the airport from the riding place. I headed back to the riding place and we walked towards the broken banks of the lake, where the horses were grazing. We walked up to one of the horses who had a bridal made of rope, with no bit. And we hopped on and just rode through the water, accompanied by the ranch dog. Through flocks of flamingos, bareback.
It was like something out of a film.
So surreal.
By me putting myself in this ‘uncomfortable’ situation, travelling alone, trusting my intuition, I had the most surreal, perfect, magical experience.
I started to find myself again.
I started to feel my way through life rather than thinking and over thinking.
In the silence and the space, I reconnected with myself. I recreated myself.
It is never too late to re-connect.
We live such busy lives that sometimes we forget to listen to our own intuition and rely on ourselves.
Holding the energetic space for what is meant to us, rather than getting caught up in the motion of life rather than living it to its fullest potential in a way that lights us up and sparks joy inside us so that each day is a delightful anticipation rather than being filled with dread and heaviness.
Thank you for taking the time to come and read this post today, I hope you enjoyed it.
And, of course, be sure to follow us on Instagram to keep up with all our adventures!
__
Some more information…
To continue finding out about the digital nomad lifestyle, building your own lifestyle business as well as affiliate marketing – make sure you’re signed up to our newsletter!
By signing up you get access to 2 pieces of free content, exclusive to our subscribers. They include a 7-part video series, that goes EVEN MORE in-depth then the blog. Giving you insight everything we do and teaches you all sorts of amazing things.
The second is our Ultimate Guide to Working Remotely. So if any of you are struggling, we’ve got you!
If that’s not enough(!), you can also click here to get access to next level training!! The training also focuses around Lifestyle Businesses and Affiliate Marketing – it really is a game changer. Oh, and it’s also completely FREE!
Have an epic day!