The challenges of clicking outside our comfort zone

Stay out?

Did you know the Internet comes complete with invisible barriers, gates, chain link fences, and padlocks?

Did you know that–usually–after the first buzz of Internet excitability, interest and exploration wears off–we usually settle into a comfortable routine of visiting a limited number of sites?

Just like in off-line life, we limit ourselves.  We limit where we shop.  We limit with whom we chat.  We limit our friendships.  We limit where we read our news and information. 

We’re only one person, after all!  We don’t have time to visit 1,000,000,000 new sites.  We’re an overloaded information-heavy society.  Too many choices usually ends up shutting us down rather than opening us up.  So we settle on A, B and C and toss out X, Y and Z.

Nothing wrong with this, is there?

Of course not!  Nothing wrong at all. 

I have been pondering this lately.  About the way we humans choose to walk on certain paths in the forest over and over and over again.  We’ll find the easiest path and follow it to our death.  The path with the least brambles, weeds, impenetrable underbrush and prickly bushes.

We do this all the time.  Even the deer do this!  We become so predictable we know where we’ll buy our groceries, where we’ll walk (sometimes with six different variations, if we’re unusually expansive), where we’ll drive, where we’ll eat lunch, what we’ll eat.

When I first discovered the Internet, I played around.  Then settled down.  Found a cool spiritual website called Gaia.com (formerly known as Zaadz.com…now closed in its original inception but operating in another incarnation.)  That became the primary focus of my Internet world for about two years. 

When someone mentioned they were blogging at WordPress or Blogger or Blogspot…it did not compute.  Even though it was one click away, it seemed as far away as the moon.  It seemed like foreign territory.  It seemed too challenging to click outside my comfort zone.

What is it about the grooves in our brains that keep us in comfortable zones?  Sure enough, those comfort zones sometimes helps us navigate easier.  With less choice we can actually settle deeper in those comfort zones and learn more.

Yet sometimes it feels imperative to dive into the unknown areas.  Navigate on the pathless path, even though the underbrush might scratch our cheeks.  Think of the new things off the beaten path!  You might glimpse a rabbit scrambling for cover, or an exotic woodland plant.  You might see something you’ve never seen before.

Freedom!

I must start shopping for a camera lens soon.  Shopping, itself, is often outside of my comfort zone.  Some folks can zip between Internet shopping sites with glee.  Not me.  I can zip between spiritual websites easier than shopping sites.

It’s time to make that wild & crazy new click out of my comfort zone.  It’s not on the other side of the planet.  One doesn’t need to travel all day by airplane to visit Canon.com or KEH.com.

By the way…speaking of new clicks…you guys are not going to believe this!  I have started a third blog.  Yes.  A third blog.  Please do not faint. It’s my morning meditation blog.  It’s only a click away. 

This one deals with spirituality:  awareness and non-duality.  A totally different kind of blog than most of you are used to seeing here at Lake Superior Spirit.   If you’re interested in this topic, go ahead.  Click your mouse.  One click.  That’s all.  Turn it Around.  (And if you’re not interested, that’s OK, too…I am writing this one mostly for myself…anyone else who visits will just be an added gift.)

If not this brand new baby blog, how about clicking on something else absolutely different today?  Pursue an interest you’ve put on the back-burner.  Re-kindle a passion to learn something new.  Click where you’ve never clicked before!  (Makes us feel kind of good to expand our world beyond that usual path, doesn’t it?)