Out Of the Comfort Zone. Into the New Upgraded Version of You. a Visualisation Exercise

In this exercise you can learn to visualise the New Upgraded Version of you that we worked on in our previous exercise and in doing so you can begin to shift away from living in the safe zone, the Comfort Zone of life, and move towards actually living the life of the New Upgraded Version of you.

You can learn to become an active participant in the development of your life, instead of continuing as a passive follower of life circumstance - otherwise known as the Comfort Zone.

But what is the Comfort Zone? And how is it felt in the body?

It is a resonance that you are used to, that you have been replaying on a loop and that you feel you don’t want to leave, a feeling of safety and relaxation perhaps a feeling of existing in ‘neutral’, the mid-way zone.

And what happens when you try to leave this zone - by moving forwad, or shifting gears? At its’ more heightened level, you may feel a panic, or freeze state, and as a base line, you may feel some level of fear and stress.

Your body can in fact experience a stress response to the idea of change, of leaving the comfort zone and moving into something new.

In a fear response your body and mind is replaying all the reasons why you should stay where you are - look what happened last time, look what’s happened so far - no shift, no change, bad feedback or no movement. In a stress response state you focus on all the things that will hold you in the comfort zone, as your body and mind try to protect you from the unknown.

This is a very real response, it is very physcal.

So how do you move forward when it feels your body is physically blocked from going onwards and upwards? We need to teach the body and mind that it is safe to leave the comfort zone, we can begin to familiarise the mind and body with the New Upgraded Version (the ‘NUV’) of you by introducing aspects of this new version - one by one - allowing the body and mind to experience, to practice, what it feels like to shift out of the comfort zone and towards the NUV you. By mentally rehearsing what this experience feels like - we can teach the body that it is actually safe to move forward into this new zone - the ‘new and improved’ zone of your life. *

To start shifting out you have to start thinking about what it is that you want - how do you want your life to be different.

PART 1:-

Before you begin this exercise (in Part 2), you will first need to complete the following ‘Self Upgrade’ exercise:- https://www.sittingpeacock.com/post/self-upgrade-a-visualisation-exercise

In that exercise you will notice the things that you want to change in your life, you are effectively creating a list of things that are outside of your comfort zone, the place you want to be in. In this way you are shifting away from what you don’t have - to what you do want - you are shifting your mindset to understand what is possible and you begin the process of imagining what it would be like, what it would feel like, to live the life where those things are already existing.

PART 2:-

Now for the next part, you are going to identify one item on that list which you see as being the most achievable. For example, I remember from my list - which I made in the Self Upgrade exercise (see Part 1 above) - that the future version of me was peaceful and self assured. In this moment, peace would be the more attainable (and possibly easier!) option for me to achieve - so that is the one I choose to work with first in this exercise. And here, peace would mean for me the opposite of a stress state in the body.

So in this exercise - using myself as an example and having identified the first item on my list from the Upgraded Self exercise, I categorised the ‘old me’ as being in a stress state, and the ‘new me’, as living in a peaceful state. We could say that my comfort zone was stress, and the new version of me - who reaches outside the comfort zone and wants to achieve a better version of myself - exists in a peaceful state.

And you may have a very practical item on your list - for example, of passing an exam, or getting a promotion, or even finding love in a new relationship.

For me, a practical item on my list would be as follows:- in my comfort zone I would continue to study how to paint, but I do not paint any new and creative works for myself. The comfort zone for me would be continuing to attend art classes, listening to teachers and doing as instructed, still continuing to learn but not pushing myself to be creative, to think about side the box artistically and acutally doing it. So the NUV me would be someone who can paint alone, someone who can design a painting from my true self, my imagination and who would perhaps even enter art competitions or exhibit my completley original works. Me in my NUV state, would not devote all my energy to attending classes, but my energy trajectory would shift towards devoting more and more time and thought towards my own projects.

Step 1:-

So, once you have identified that one item on your list - the first most achievable or important item - you can find a comfortable position to sit, and gently close your eyes. Start by coming to your breath, inhaling and exhaling, lengthening the inhale and lengthening the exhale. Feeling the ground beneath you. As you exhale, releasing anything you no longer need from the day. As you inhale, breathing in energy, and filling up your body, as you exhale - breathing out energy to fill all / any gaps in your energy field, stay here for a moment until this feels complete. You may find that you feel as if you are in a kind of bubble, or simply that you feel stronger or more grounded.

Once you are feeling calm and relaxed, with your eyes gently closed you can begin to imagine the sky above you, you could be sitting where you are, in your home, or in a garden, or you could even imagine sitting in your favourite place in nature, or even sitting on top of a mountain.

You can start to imagine breathing in the air of the location you have chosen. Perhaps the air feels warmer, or clearer, perhaps it feels fresher and lighter, perhaps you can even sense the smell of a warmer climate - sensing the humidity, or sensing the feel of the cool air on your skin or the smell of a fresh cool breeze as you continue to inhale and exhale, imagining you are sitting somewhere with the sky directly above you.

You can begin to imagine moving away from where you are sitting, there is this version of you - the current version of you, sitting exactly where you are - in your home , your garden - that you is staying exactly where it is - connected to the earth and supported by the ground beneath you. Moving away could mean moving up, with your eyes still gently closed, you can imagine moving up - what would it feel like if I were to be sitting in the clouds, perhaps cooler, perhaps softer, and what would it feel like if I move further up, perhaps you may find yourself shifting higher, to a place above the clouds, perhaps as you continue upwards the earth is moving further away from you, and you can look down and notice that you are looking smaller and smaller, as you move up and away, you are zooming out of your life - the micro version of your life - and you are shifting towards seeing a macro version, you are shifting to a place where you can see all future possibilities.

Step 2:-

Once you have reached a place that feels far enough away - this could be simply sitting on the top of that mountain, or you could find yourself sitting in the clouds, or you may even have found yourself sitting on a star or even another planet. And once you are there, take a moment to breathe, to deepen again your inhale and your exhale, taking a moment to feel where you are, perhaps there is a greater silence, a greater peace, or even a lightness of the body or mind. You are then going to imagine looking back at yourself, the self who is physically sitting at home, in your room, or garden, or perhaps you are sitting on a train or in a car going somewhere.

From where you have imagined yourself to be - from that more distant place - you are going to imagine looking back down at yourself - the current version of you. You are going to begin to imagine - to visualise - what it would look like if you had already achieved that first item on your list.

Here we start the process of imagining, visualising, what would it look like if you could shift out of your comfort zone and into this NUV of you. How would it look, and how would it feel if you had began to act, to behave, to embody that first item on your list? And as you do this you are staying with your breath, deep and calm inhales and exhales, keeping the physcal body in a state of relaxation as you behind to imagine yourself out of your comfort zone. Stay with your breath, stay in your peaceful and grounded state.

Please note:- if any difficult emotions of memories arise during this exercise please stop, come back to your breath, and seek the advice and guidance of a trained therapist or counsellor.

So in my example, I look at myself and I begin to notice how she is existing in the current moment, in the present. I see her and how she appears to be comfortable, attending her art classes, she feels safe, and in this moment of feeling safe and comfortable she decides to start drawing out a new idea for a painting, she lets her imagination run free and she begins to think and feel her way into her status of becoming and being the NUV of her. I stay here for a moment - imagining how it feels to be doing this, perhaps she feels exhilarated, excited, liberated and inspired, I continue to breathe as I see her working in this way.

Then I begin to imagine seeing her in 3 months time, if she continues to work like this - as she continues to practice and embody this newer and upgraded versoin of her - I can observe her in 3 months time as she begins to paint, she is painting from her imagination and perhaps she has even stopped attending art classes and she puts that money and that time into her own painting, her own original work. I can stay here for a while, observing her in her NUV state - perhaps she seems happier, perhaps she seems more confident - and perhaps now she wants to do even more. Stay here for a moment, continue to breathe, this time breathing in whatever positive feelings come up for you, be it confidence, happinness, peace, a sense of achievement or even simply of relaxation as you enter a more peaceful state.

Then you can move forwad to seeing her in 6 months time, noticing how this line of energy continues and develops - seeing how she has moved even further outside of and away from her old comfort zone. Perhaps at 6 months into the future you can see yourself as being comfortable in being this new version of you, perhaps you have created a new comfort zone, a place where you exist in a relaxed and comfortable state whilst being and existing as this New Upgraded Version of you.

<< This exercise is based on the hypnosis technique of ‘Future Pacing’ by Milton Erickson** >>

Recap:-

1. Sitting in a comfortable position, deepening the breath, begin to imagine zooming out - away from the current version of you. Perhaps imagining sitting on a mountain top, or even as far away as another planet. And as you imagine sitting there, you can imagine looking down at yourself.

2. What it would feel like - right now - if you were already - in this moment acting out, behaving, thinking and feeling as if you had already achieved the first item on your list. Staying here for a moment, just imagining what you would be doing, and how that feels.

3. Then you follow this energy line forward, and find yourself at three months into the future now observing what you are doing and how you are feeling, having practiced being the NUV of you for three months now.

4. Next you can go another three months into the future from then, so now you are at six months into the future. What does your life look like now that you have been the NUV of you for six months? What are you doing now, and how are you feeling ? Breathe in any of those positive emotions, perhaps even more relaxed, perhaps even more excited, perhaps more confident.

5. Then if you can, imagine yourself one year into the future and continue to experience the New Upgraded Version of You and all of the feelings you can experience here.

Step 3:-

Once you have completed this exercise, either up to point 4 or 5 above, you can begin to bring yourself back to where you started. So wherever you imagined yourself to be, sitting at the top of a mountain, or even sitting somewhere far away in space, come back to your breath, taking some deeper inhales and exhales, and find yourself gently returning to the place where you are physically sitting, bringing yourself - your mind, your imaginination - back to where you started, sitting at home, in your room, or garden. Coming back to where you are and feeling the ground beneath you, taking three deep inhales and exhales and gently opening your eyes.

After this exercise you may want to make some notes about action points you want to take, or feelings and emotions that came up while you were doing this exercise.

You can continue repeating this exercise with this one item until you begin seeing results in your life, notice when you start to actually embody and behave as the New Upgraded Version of You, and congratulating your achievements and development at each step forward.

And then once you have begun to see progress in achieving that one item on your list, you can continue with any and all aspects of your life that you want to move towards that you had noted in Part 1 of the exercise.

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* Book references:- (1). Jose Silva's Guide to Mental Training for Fitness and Sports: Think and Grow Fit; and (2). Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself, by Joe Dispenza.

** Founded in the practice of - future pacing in hypnosis - see: Patterns of the Hypnotic Techniques of Milton H.Erickson: Volume 1 John Grinder & Richard Bandler; and Patterns of the Hypnotic Techniques of Milton H.Erickson: Volume 2 John Grinder, Richard Bandler & Judith DeLozier. Also see:- https://hypnosiscredentials.com/techniques/future-pacing-in-hypnosis/#:~:text=Future%20pacing%20is%20essentially%20a,like%20to%20see%20occur%20automatically.

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