Uncomfortable Doesn't Mean Unsafe

Humans are hardwired to respond to unsafe and dangerous environments. It's a survival mechanism. The amygdala, the small almond shaped mass sitting on the bottom of both hemispheres of the brain, is always looking for the next rogue tiger or band of invading barbarians. One would think this area of the brain would settle down if we weren't under threat, but it doesn't. Just like your teenage daughter, the amygdala is quite prone to overreacting when things do go as planned.

Here's the situation - not many years ago, everything involved risk. You had to risk your health and safety to chase an animal through the woods so your family wouldn't starve. You were exposed to risk working around a two thousand pound animal with hooves and horns to plow your field  ... so your family wouldn't starve. You would have also been at risk traipsing atop your roof without proper tools, safety equipment or OSHA to repair the damage from the last storm so your family would stay warm and dry. Even just a few generations ago or less, our days would have been wrought with peril week in week out. Survival required risk. If you avoided all danger, you died.

But no more. Our kids are in bullet proof car seats with five point restraint systems rivaling something on an early Apollo mission. Our cars alert us when someone in front of us breaks quickly or if another driver drifts into our lane as they were busy updating their Facebook status. Our homes have sensors to detect burglars, carbon monoxide, smoke, heat and open garage doors. As we hunt for food the biggest risk we face is our toes being run over by an errant cart at Costco.

Now that doesn't sound like a big problem but it is if we look a little deeper. Because we can survive with very little risk, because we can remain fairly comfortable and little effort is required to stay alive, our amygdala often goes outside its job description and causes us to react to discomfort as danger. As we begin to step outside our comfort zone, our brain tells us we are leaving safety. "Don't do that, you won't fit in. Your tribe might abandon you and you'll be helpless when the Barbarians invade!"

We have lost an accurate assessment of true risk. Yes, if you give a speech you may be uncomfortable. People may disagree. They may even make fun of you. But they probably won't leave you out as bait for a saber tooth tiger. Physiologically though, your body responds as if your existence hangs in the balance.

Over time, we have learned to avoid going outside of our comfort zones, misinterpreting unpleasantness as danger. Stay put, stay in line and stay in the box, you won't get hurt. I think many of us starve our gifts and passions, passions that would return immense rewards for us and those around us. But they required us to give up what we knew to be comfortable so we ignored their call. Although it may be true our physical survival no longer requires our exposure to risk, let me propose to you our souls thrive on it. When we build walls around our comfort zone, we don't keep out danger as much as we imprison our souls ... and they slowly die. This is an epidemic in our society and it must be fixed.