I have been doing a lot of new things as of recently.

There are multiple reasons for that, one of them is that I found myself in a weird head-space a couple of months ago, as I was going through a breakup. I knew that I wanted to change things in my life. I wanted to introduce myself to new things, routines, habits, patterns, experiences. In the first place, I wanted to distract myself from the weird head-space, I did not want to deal with it. However, I quickly realized that I enjoy it way more actually dealing with this weird head-space, talking about my feelings and emotions, and opening up to my family and close friends. While this fueled my healing process, exposing myself to new things and experiences, had a similar effect, but it also helped me learn about my needs, what I value in life, and what boosts my self-esteem.

For as long as I can remember, I feared change. The thought of venturing out of my comfort zone sent shivers down my spine. But life has a way of forcing us to evolve, whether we like it or not. I used to think that staying in my comfort zone was the key to stability and security. And in many ways, it was. But as I look back, I realize that I was stuck in a state of limbo, not fully embracing change, but not fully leaving it behind either. It was not until I started small, gradually adapting to tiny changes in my daily routine, that I began to feel like I was truly moving forward. And it is amazing how quickly the comfort zone becomes familiar again. But with each small step, I gained confidence to tackle bigger challenges. The world outside my comfort zone may be daunting at first, but its impact on my life, mental health, and growth has been profound.

The key is to take those initial small steps, get comfortable with the unknown, and then... who knows? Maybe you will find that the world beyond your comfort zone becomes your greatest ally.

Working full-time had one of the biggest influences on my life in terms of robbing all my energy from 9-5, so I was left with loads of mundane days, spending the afterwork hours at home cooking, watching TV, playing games, or reading books. Nothing bad per se, still sounds like a good time, however, staying in such a comfort zone for too long has negatively impacted my life, my well-being, and my past relationship. Once your days become too mundane, it might be the right time to change something. We need chaos. And I say this as someone who is very structured, organized, and precise in their doing. We need novelty. Fresh and new experiences and ideas flatten the path to go on your next quest.

The monotony of daily life compresses time, while the excitement of something new expands it.

As I spent most of my days starring into a computer screen, those days started to blend into the next ones. I now realized how important it is to change routines regularly, start exploring new things constantly, instead of giving in, and forever staying in your comfort zone. I am privileged to be working at a company that allows me to work remotely, creating my own time-schedule, and offers a serious amount of flexibility. So, I have a great setup to break out of regular working hours, stiff and structured working days, and use my time to create new experiences, new memories, and adjust my life around them instead of work.

I am thriving on making room for fun, spending time in nature, meeting new people, and surrounding myself with folks I am always having a great time with. Life is too generative to not explore, experiment, trial-and-error. And I just realized this now. While I truly enjoy those things when they are happening it is so daunting to make them happen. It is way more simple to default to the comfort zone, and it is already cozy there. However, over the past few days (Christmas holidays) I found myself in a bunch of situations where I got emotional because I wanted my "previous life" back, with all the ups and downs (although the downs were in the majority) just because it is the life I already know, I am already used to. But since this is not going to happen, I got reminded that it is time for change, time for new things.

Among the new things I have done recently and am doing are more quality time with family, more quality time with friends heading out for drinks or food, doing more short trips and work-cations, exploring new environments, discovering new routes with my road bike, wearing new cloths, reading new books, but also small and subtle changes unlocked something for me.

For example, whenever I took a shower I used to let my hair air-dry, just to be upset about how it looked once it dried. Now, I simply take the couple of minutes after I get out of the shower, and dry my hair with a hairdryer. A subtle change with a huge impact on my self-esteem. A bit related to that: I am working remotely for quite some time. I have an office in my apartment, and therefore, I usually defaulted to wearing just a T-Shirt and shorts, plus a sweatshirt or hoodie for colder days. I always liked fashion, and combining different pieces of my closet in order to create an outfit, but I completely lost the sense for that while working remotely. Suddenly, when I headed outside, I was wearing the same sweatshirts, hoodies, T-Shirts, shorts, and trousers every-time. So, upgrading the content of my closet, wearing new things, and adapting to new styles all lead to a significant self-esteem boost.

What I still need to learn is to fully enjoy doing all those new things, like exploring new bike and hiking routes, going to concerts, or short trips alone, since right now I do not have that many friends around me that are accessible for experiencing those things together. The life I am living and pursuing is quite different to my close friends' lives. And that is fine, since either I am dealing with experiencing and enjoying those activities alone, or I try to connect with new people to share those moments together.

I am scared of what is about to come. I am scared of all the change. However, at the same time, I realized that I am in the need of change, since I am not happy where I am right now, and all the new things and experiences I added to my life, helped me moving to a better place, a happier place.