Sometimes it just feels as though life is about to come pouring down on you…  Life has a way of not letting you stay comfortable for too long.

I used to constantly worry about what the future was going to bring.  I wouldn’t like when things were too ‘happy’ because I was worried everything was going to come crashing down.  I am slowly getting better at this fear and trying to live more in the present.  It’s ridiculous to think that we can’t just be happy all the time, right?…  Well, I guess I still worry about the future and I get a little nervous when life seems to be feeling a little too smooth – but what has gotten better is that I’m realizing if things change it doesn’t mean my world is going to fall apart, it just means I need to step out of my comfort zone a little more.

Comfort is a very interesting feeling – it definitely means something different to each of us.  I do think though that we can all relate to terms like ‘comfort food’ and the desire to be comforted.  I was discussing with someone the other day about my new lifestyle and how it isn’t about comfort food, it’s about feeling good inside and out.  They were talking about how it would be hard to give up their comfort foods (most of which don’t really fit into this lifestyle).

It’s been a couple weeks though, and life has been starting to sprinkle on me a little, and I have been craving ‘comfort’ foods and the ‘comfy’ things in life (i.e. my bed, hah!).  For the first weekend when things were starting to get a little stormy I reached for past comfort foods (pancakes, donuts, candy bars, cinnamon rolls) and that turned into me being very uncomfortable.  I remembered one of the important realizations of my new lifestyle is how important it is to listen to your body – and I started focusing on this.  I ate salads with lots of veggies, green smoothies, eggs, and dark chocolate.  Then it dawned on me – these are my new comfort foods.  Changing your lifestyle isn’t about giving up the things you find comforting in life, it’s just about making adjustments to what that means to you.

This morning I was in a bit of a rush and threw together a smoothie with some greens, flax seeds, peanut butter, and frozen fruit.  If I’m being totally honest it didn’t taste that great (who has time to think about the green:fruit ratio when you are cranky and late for work) but it was oddly comforting.  Comforting in the sense that I knew even if I wasn’t feeling emotionally that great, my body was not going to give up on me.  My body was going to give me the energy I needed to make it through the day – and that is incredibly comforting.

Just because I don’t find comfort in foods such as homemade mac and cheese, waffles, or candy bars anymore doesn’t mean I gave up having comfort foods.  I realize how important it is to still take care of my physical body even if my emotional body is having a hard time.  If you give up on both your emotional AND physical body, it’s going to be so much harder to get yourself out a rut.  The least I can do for myself is feed it food that makes it happy.  The emotions will eventually come around.

~Here’s to letting life make you uncomfortable while still finding the comfort in life~