Comfort Zones, Lessons Learned and Committments

"The deepest secret is that life is not a process of discovery, but a process of creation. You are not discovering yourself, but creating yourself anew. Seek therefore, not to find out who you are, but seek to determine who you want to be." Neale Donald Walsch

Wow.....if that didn't hit me right between the eyes!! I have felt the depth of that...especially over the last several months...i GET TO CREATE MYSELF and WHO I WANT TO BE! To that end, I have challenged my comfort zones, learned many lessons and decided on new committments for myself for the upcoming year. This may be a long blog, but there has been so much going on, I just feel like I am beyond Glass Full!!

Comfort zones..where do I begin?!?! I blogged about my conquering the mountain and such in the last one..then there was Spain. I was in a country where English was not the first language and while enough was spoken to communicate at points, it was still an adventure. There was lots of pointing and head nodding and gussing at times. But what and AMAZING country. Salamanca was one of the most beautiful places I have been to and speaking of comfort zones...I stepped out of many. Although it may seem little, I let go of alot of fear on my tapas tour. So here is how tapas works,,,,you go into bar and there is glass casing covering many different types of food. So you order a drink and get to pick one tapas to eat. The beautiful thing about the Spanish (or maybe it was just the people I was with) is that you all share...drinks, food..etc..you just share and it is such a simple, lovely thing to do that we don't do enough of. There is such beauty in the sharing of food and drink..I just loved it! So the tapas..there is all sorts of stuff...food I would have no problem eating and food that I normally would wrinkle my nose up at and say "No Way!" to..but I figured when in Rome... So I tried Jamones on bread. Jamone is pork that has been cured for years, has not been cooked and the leg literally hangs from the ceiling by the hoof until it is ready to be served. It was good. I figured I like bacon and prok chops, this should be an easy leap and it was. Then we went on to the next bar. Here i tried octopus on potato and it wasn't bad! I actually had two pieces of it. I then tried the bluest blue cheese on bread I have ever had. Very strong nad pungent, but very good. I also triend the potato, fried egg and fried pig fat dish that was pretty good as well. There is a certain freedom and a definite courage that comes with letting yourself experience new things. One of the great realizations for me was that I don't have to like everything, but in trying things, I leave the element to be surpirsed there. I love that I have this whole new aspect to my life..I get to be surprised when I let myself try new things...how cool is that?!?! I think too many times, we don't let ourselves be truly surprised and it has been eye opening to let myself not try and control my comfort, but just go with "it". It was also wonderful to catch up with old fiends, Marie Eve and Roger..what great hosts! A million thanks to them!

So..as the year draws to a close..I have had the chance to reflect on lessons learned over the last year. I am humbled to realize that at 34 years old there is still so much to see, do and LEARN. So here a few of the lessons that have really struck me this year and some of these are also committments I am making to myself...not resolutions, but committments:

DON'T LIMIT THE POSSIBILITIES: What a huge one for me! So many of us live in the can'ts, shouldn'ts and wouldn'ts that we miss out on the potential we have for our lives. I almost let the can'ts get in the way of taking the leap to move here to Ireland..I then would've been living in the should'ves! I look back at the way I used to see the world and how limiting that was for me. The only limits I have are the ones I place on myself and I refuse to draw conclusions and put limitis on the possibilities..whether that is on myself, friends, patients or whatever...NO LIMITS. This coincidentally opens the door up to be surprised which I am coming to love more and more every day!!

JUST TRY IT: This goes along with not limiting the possibilities. There is soooo much to learn in trying. So what if I don't like it, fall flat on my face or "fail"..it is all part of the experience. I have no idea what I may have missed out on not trying various things because of fear...but I am committing myself to not living in that fear anymore. I will leap, jump and push past that fear and take in every opportunity I can.

CONVENTION: I tried for so many years to stuff myself into the "right role". School/Marriage/Kids. All along, there was this wanderlust in me and I am so grateful that i get to do all the things I want to right now. "It Must be nice" is a comment I hear alot and all I can say and WITHOUT one ounce of guilt is "YES IT IS". This is the life I have chose and I won't feel guilty for doing exactly what I want to do. Obviously the path of convention was not working for me. Does that mean I don't want those things..NO! I absolutely want marriage and kids someday, but for this moment, I am enjoying the freedom to experience and do whatever it is that I decide...to create my own exisitence!

JUDGEMENT: I am through being my harshest critic. I have put so much wasted time into self judgement, self doubt and self loathing that I won't do it anymore. If the past 7 months have taught me anything, it has taught me that I am stronger, wiser, more balanced and prettier than I give myself credit for. I laugh loud, I smile alot, I am happy, I get really excited and text alot, write alot, call alot and all the other stuff...that is me and I am done with worrying if it is too much for others!!! Done with trying to be an "ideal"! What if the "ideal" is EXACTLY who I am at this moment??? How great is that?!!

LIVING IN THE MOMENT: I have also learned to be present in the moment...not to let what happened in the past color my thoughts about the present moment nor let worry about the future interrupt what may be the perfect present moment. I really want to live in the moments that take my breath away and not worry about what is coming next...moments like seeing something beautiful, a wonderful moment with a patient, a first kiss, surprise reunions..whatever it is, I want to savor each second of the now!

TRAVEL: I want to continue to take advantage of the opportunity to travel. Whether that be travelling around Ireland or elsewhere..the experience and life I am leading at the moment is amazing and rarely done. I know how blessed I am to do all this and I can't wait to see what else is out there, push my comfort zones and check out the possibilities!

This is but a small list of things. I could go on all night..overall I just have an OVERWHELMING sense of gratitude about where I am at in life and all that I get to do. However, most of my gratitude is felt and directed to family and friends who are always in my corner, cheering me on, loving me and giving me the suppport to go chase my dreams and CREATE myself!

Love you All!!

Sally