Happiness Is On the Other Side of Fear: So Walk Beyond Your Comfort Zone!


It seems every day now I have to choose to take a new step beyond my comfort zone. Recovery requires us to stop playing it safe; it requires us to get out of our old ways of thinking and reacting. Recovery gives us all of the tools we need to step forward into new ways of thinking, to get back in touch with our feelings, to declare our self-worth, to move forward.

One of the biggest ways to move forward is to learn to act instead of react to life. Acting requires us to think and choose an option that is healthy for us and those around us. When we react to life, we are coming from a place of internal childhood conditioning. In doing so, we perpetuate the chaos and drama we experienced as children. It feels natural, comfortable and easy, but it’s toxic. Comfortable equals stuck— stuck in our old muck.

I refuse to stay stuck anymore. Every day God provides a new door to new life for us.God places the key to that door in our hands. It’s up to us to open the door and walk through, to take those small steps out of our comfort zone and into new life. We don’t have to do it alone. Our Higher Power always has our backs covered. We just need to have faith and courage to walk forward through our fears into a beautiful newness of life.

Once we are determined to do so, no one can stop us. And what we will find on the other side of that door, on the other side of our fear, is everything we ever needed to be happy and successful in this life. This doesn’t mean we’ll get everything we ever wanted-- and we need to be grateful for that fact. So much of what we’ve wanted has been toxic. So we need to let go of old wants and be grateful for all of the good we can find in the present moment.

It’s when we let go and move forward with gratitude and faith that life begins to work it’s magic through our “new eyes” of self-acceptance and love— and through the love of our Higher Power. It’s true: Everything we’ve ever wanted is on the other side of our fears. Move beyond your comfort zone and rejoice in the newness of life that IS recovery from our old addictive way of life!

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