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By Hanne
Have you wondered about the life outside of the comfort zone? So yes, just outside of that, comfortable and cozy life. You know, that place where you would like to enter, but there is always something shinier about your comfort zone, and that something always wins. In this post, you will hear my story. What I have found outside of the comfort zone, and how I’ve drifted into that place from time-to-time.
Life outside of the comfort zone
This post is a story of a very, very shy girl who thirsted life so much that she had to learn to be brave and confident. This story is about me. And even though the learning process is still ongoing, I can say that I have traveled a very long way to this day.
What defines a shy person? I didn’t talk to strangers in my youth (I still don’t speak unless someone speaks to me first), and luckily I always had very outgoing friends. Those who took care of speaking so I could stand up next to them with a smile on my face and listen. I think there are many people like this among us, those who are shy and those who are brave speakers.
My shyness was so extreme that I did not even dare to call myself an appointment with a hairdresser. I simply just found it too “scary” to talk to people on the phone. It is one thing that now feels a bizarre and very distant thing, most of all because I have been working on a switchboard of a multinational company.
As a part of shyness, I also suffered from a huge stagefright. That, too, was so extreme that I started avoiding situations where I had to be in front of people. And when there was a presentation coming to school, for example, I was usually sick that day to move that situation into the future.
Group Exercise Instructor with Stage Fright
As a teenager, I was passionate about sports, and I liked any sports. One day I was asked if I would like to become a group exercise instructor. For some reason, I found myself responding yes to this offer. A little contradictory, right? But, I assured myself that this would be a whole different thing than being in front of people and talking to them. Playing sports was something I loved, and this was just spreading that love. And by instructing others, I could make them love sports too. So I ended up teaching different types of groups for many years.
The stage fright lifted its ugly head again in 2016 during my yoga teacher training. Boy, was I really out of my comfort zone at that time. The world of yoga was in many ways so different from the group exercise and the classes I was used to instructing. And the fact that I had to teach yoga in English was, of course, a significant factor in this equation (I attended my yoga teacher training in India). After the training, the first time I was teaching in my native language, I was in so much trouble since all the cues were in my head in English. Everything had etched in my mind quite thoroughly. When teaching yoga, I was very nervous for the first few years. And I actually got rid of nervousness after a couple of years of teaching. But how? What happened then that changed all that?
Dreaming of the Life outside of the Comfort Zone
At this point, I guess you could say I was thirsty for life. I thirsted for it so much that I was in a situation where I had moved abroad to teach yoga. It was my biggest dream. And it led me to teach yoga in Indonesia. However, just before my first class, I was panicking. I wondered how I got myself in such a situation? Am I really going to teach this large group of people in English? Could I still cancel and run away? These were my thoughts before my first class.
Of course, I survived it; after all, I’m here now talking about the case. I survived the class even though the sequence I had planned was too short for a 90-minute class. Therefore in the middle of the class and in the middle of my teaching, I had to come up with and teach a new sequence to my group. This moment was a turning point, and I was no longer afraid to lead a class in Finnish or English. The desire to teach is and has been much more significant than my fear.
With this writing, I want to encourage you. If you have a dream, small or big, be bold and follow that dream. Whatever it may be. Yes, it is definitely scary. But, do you want that fear to be obstacle to making your dream come true? The fact is that rarely do the things we dream of be achieved by staying in the comfort zone. By living in a nice comfy “nest”. That’s why I want to encourage you to step out of that place and simply believe in yourself, ALWAYS. I promise it’s worth all those butterflies flying in your stomach. After all, it’s about making your dream come true. <3
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Hanne Nousiainen
Yoga teacher • Personal Trainer
Hanne Nousiainen
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