Our comfort zones are warm and cosy places to be. They provide safety, certainty and stability; however, staying in them for too long can limit our growth and experiences.

What is a comfort zone? It’s a place where we feel safe, where we experience consistency, and where we can feel relaxed. It doesn’t have to be a physical space like our home or school, it could be a state of being - like avoiding large groups, or speaking in public. It is important that we can identify where our comfort zones are and what they look like, so that when times get tough we know a safe space we can retreat to. However, it’s not helpful to stay there all the time.

The space where personal growth and learning exists is in the stretch zone. The stretch zone is usually found in activities and situations that might make us feel uncomfortable, but are still within close proximity to our comfort zone. They do not put us in danger or make us feel unsafe. The stretch zone is where we find potential for growth by placing demands on ourselves that create a healthy kind of stress. It’s good to get into our stretch zone in short bursts and then return to our comfort zone to rest and recover. If we spend too long in our stretch zone we can end up in the terror zone.

The terror zone is not somewhere you want to be. You end up here when you are experiencing unhealthy levels and types of stress and when you don’t give yourself time to rest and recover from being in the stretch zone. This is where you engage your fight, flight or freeze response system (survival system). If you feel as though you are entering this zone, find a way to move back into your comfort zone where you can recover.

“Stress + recovery = growth” – Dr Paul Wood

Take care Timaru Girls’ High School whanau, and enjoy the rest of 2020.

- Mrs King