Comfort Zones

[isthatso]

The following sudden changes to your life...how would you react, survive? which are the most difficult?

sharing a house with a different person,
having to eat less food( a diet) or food you don't like,
suddenly doing a job you don't like such as labouring for instance
suddenly having to mix with a lot of new people every day
suddenly having to do a boot camp style exercise regime everyday
suddenly living in a culture/country where you don't speak the language
suddenly having to do without an addiction like smoking or chocolates
no internet/computer

The hardest one for me would be sharing a house with a different person. I'm getting too old to be flexible on this one. I'm sure my habits would annoy others and I know others' habit would annoy me.
Living in a different country where I don't speak the language, I've done and it was kind of fun actually. Depends on the culture though.

 

[Limlim]

I dunno, those don't sound like comfort zones at all. In fact I'd say they are decidedly the opposite of comfort zones, and would be downright uncomfortable!

 

[bulmabriefs144]

I think he means, by violating these, you figure out where your comfort zones are.

I'd have a fairly easy time with this. I'm okay with most people, as long as they don't cross one line. They can have all kinds of weird habits and leave a mess, whatever, I do too. The only taboo is not accepting me, telling me how to live. Since I accepted how they live, I think it's fair.

I can eat most types of food (even weird stuff like haggis), but I'm strange in that I don't like junk food (white bread, processed soups, McDonalds, though I do have a weakness for corn tortilla chips). Living with a family who was white bread eaters, I'd leave.

I'm frequently unemployed. I frequently do labor jobs. No comfort issues at all, unless the boss is a jerk.

Probably be okay with this. If it was a living with them sort of dealing. Having to be fake is out of my comfort, I could be a social worker and act friendly to people who came up to a counter asking for stuff.

Screw that. If there's one thing I have not patience for, it's controlling people. I'd be okay with a monastic lifestyle, if it was largely self-imposed.

If I could live rent free, find a job (possibly teaching my language), and not deal with deportation, I'd be okay with living in a strange country with nobody to talk to. I in fact did this in China for like 8 weeks, and was pretty okay, because I got room and board and could buy stuff.

I threw pills I'd been taking for years (ADD) into the sink, and stopped taking them, when I got permission to do so. If I really don't want to do something, I don't do it. If I do, I simply do. Either way, I put up with the side-effects of doing/not doing something. Not as focused without my ADD medicine, and occasionally need lists to remember tasks (I'm doing farm/garden work too, since I don't have the attention to just sit at a desk) but not looking back. If it was something I liked to do, I'd find a way to do it, whether someone forbade it or not.

Having no internet is something that I know I'm uncomfortable with, but I also know that I've done without it alot, since I've been in weird areas, and we have had to deal with spotty net.

So, my comfort zone issues are: 1. Being controlled, 2. forced to eat junk food, 3. being forced to live on someone else's schedule.

 

[Peaches]

ahah, funny, I can do with almost all on the first post - some of them for me are not comfort zones but rather survival zones, in the sense that whenever I tried to do without it in a few days I was a complete wreck and fell sick. For instance like having a certain level of quiet around and a private corner for sleeping, and some heating, and not having a physical labour or 9 to 5 job for me are survival zones, in the sense that whenever I tried to do without them after a week I was a complete wreck and fell very ill.
Moving to a stranger country, check, eat weirdest food, check (except for Burger king, no thanks) but now i have diet restraints with gluten and such, monastic life, check, social work, check, addictions, check, sharing a house, I love it as long as it's big enough, maybe my comfort zones relate to extreme weather, both hot and cold, and maybe not having some private space or time for myself. For the rest I am pretty flexible, as long as I have a good mattress and some heating, all the rest is unimportant.

 

[isthatso]

I think he means, by violating these, you figure out where your comfort zones are.

yes you're right. I should have explained it better.

Example: I'm addicted to creature comforts like air conditioning in summer, living with the same partner for 20 years. If this was to change I'd be way out of my comfort zone.

 

[kamya]

After a year of delivering I really wouldn't mind a laboring job. As long as it's full time. I've noticed in a lot of these situations, you pretty quickly get over it and can expand your comfort zones to fit whatever new situations you have to keep facing.

 

[Saucer]

sharing a house with a different person,
Would depend on how well I knew the person. Assuming I don't know the person at all, I would probably go crazy from lack of privacy... No idea what I would do to adapt.

having to eat less food( a diet) or food you don't like,
Don't think this would affect me very much at all, true that I love eating good food but I don't think I could bring myself to complain... I'd rather suck it up than confront anyone about it.

suddenly doing a job you don't like such as labouring for instance
At this point getting any job would make me happy, even if I would go into mental meltdown due to it...

suddenly having to mix with a lot of new people every day
I would probably get physically sick... atleast that's what happened last time I got into a similar situation.

suddenly having to do a boot camp style exercise regime everyday
Assuming I did not have to do it along side anyone else or have anyone watching me do it, I would welcome the opertunity! Otherwise I would most likely end up burnt out.

suddenly living in a culture/country where you don't speak the language
Sadly I don't think it would affect me too much since I hardly speak to anyone directly and what short conversations would be necessary to survival I could probably get away with english.

suddenly having to do without an addiction like smoking or chocolates
This is hard to answer since I can't remember what it was like before I got addicted to certain things... But I assume it would be sad since I could not enjoy the feeling of quelling the need for the addictive element.

no internet/computer
Hmm, since pretty much all my "social" interactions take place over the internet I would most likely go from lonely to extremly lonely and that would bring about the consequences of loneliness even stronger...
Needless to say, that would not be nice...

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and assume that this kind of response is not what you had in mind, however I had to write my answers down to properly think about the situations you mentioned and so I decided to keep the whole thing rather than sum it up.

 

[NoRain]

Considering the options you described, I might even complain a bit at first, but I'd probably get used to it. I've actually gone through some of the things you mentioned. I'm good at adapting myself to situations, even if theyre unpleasant.
What might come as a shock considering that so many people post in the forum that they want a relationship, is that loneliness is my biggest comfort zone. It hurts me terribly, but at least I know what to do with it, how to deal with it, its a familiar pain. I can sort of control it. I have a love/hate relationship with loneliness. While I do want someone, I'm terribly afraid of it, of getting hurt. I guess Ive been alone for so long that I dont even know how to be in a relationship.

 

[duff]

The following sudden changes to your life...how would you react, survive? which are the most difficult?

sharing a house with a different person,
having to eat less food( a diet) or food you don't like,
suddenly doing a job you don't like such as labouring for instance
suddenly having to mix with a lot of new people every day
suddenly having to do a boot camp style exercise regime everyday
suddenly living in a culture/country where you don't speak the language
suddenly having to do without an addiction like smoking or chocolates
no internet/computer

The hardest one for me would be sharing a house with a different person. I'm getting too old to be flexible on this one. I'm sure my habits would annoy others and I know others' habit would annoy me.
Living in a different country where I don't speak the language, I've done and it was kind of fun actually. Depends on the culture though.

all of them

 

[Misanthrope23]

i'm getting sick of my comfort zone (my bedroom) and want to venture to other places but i'm too scared to do so. is anyone else in this situation?