Your Working Zone

I'm calling It the Working Zone, because of the clarity of its counterpoint--not working.  As in: this is not working!   Because you know when it's not  working, don't you?  You're burned out, or enraged, or stuck, or depressed, or freaking out with anxiety.  In that condition, nothing is more important than finding a way to lower the decibel level of the stress until we can work with it.  Go ahead and sweep that problem under the rug for now.   

On the other hand, we can lower the stress level to such a comfortable place that we stagnate.  What's the point of that?  We might as well just wait for death.  

To open the mind, to live fully, to be intimate with others, we need to tune ourselves to our Working Zone.  Yogi's call it the edge--the point of stretch that lengthens the muscles without causing strain.   You know you're in the working zone when you can say "I don't know" and feel ok about it.   Maybe you feel sad but also nourished and connected to others.  Maybe you feel scared but also excited about a new venture, a new lover, a new place.  Maybe you're having a tough but intimacy-building conversation.  

A Working Zone also applies to pacing habit changes.   For example, one client had an idea that she should meditate 20 minutes a day.  Well, that is certainly a good idea, but the duration was so intimidating that she was actually meditating 0 minutes.  Not working.   I suggested 5 instead, and life changed dramatically.  You can figure out how this applies to food choices, exercise, kindness toward others, sex, and on and on.