"A Rose that Grew from Concrete"

Hello Rose Bud's!! I hope everyone is keeping warm in this unbelievably cold weather! I have been thinking a lot about comfort zones and how to break out of them. In the past 5-6 months I have experienced some very challenging life changing events. In August, my middle sister and her family moved to Georgia and everyone knows how close my sisters and I are. That same month, as a matter of fact, that same weekend in August my close aunt who helped me out tremendously with the kids moved to Iowa. THAT SAME DAMNED month my marriage collapsed! I couldn't help but think this is God shaking me up and pushing me out of my comfort zone. All of the people that I relied upon for one reason or another were removed from me. At first I didn't panic, I thought this is just a bump in the road and it'll soon pass like everything else. Boy was I wrong. There were a lot of dark nights for me, I felt truly hopeless, alone and afraid. I am forever grateful for the awesome support system that I have, they really got me through (and still to this day). I have to admit that Instagram became apart of my support system as well lol! I absolutely LOVE Instagram and all of the inspirational quotes and inspiring pages that I've had the pleasure to come across. One of my favorites is Awaken.healers. I cannot begin to tell you how many screenshots and saved images I have in my phone with inspirational and encouraging messages. So many of those messages seem to be written just for me, I come alive in those moments and I say to myself, "hell yeah, this is what I needed to hear, this message just touch my very SOUL"! In that moment, I would be so excited and ready to conquer the world. Unfortunately, once I take the screenshot and scroll past the post, I tend to forget the message and the good feeling that it gave me.

Almost immediately I recognized those changes for what they were, I was being pushed out of my comfort zone! During the last few months some of those inspirational messages that I came across on Instagram have become mantras and affirmations for me. I received this photo of "The Comfort Zone" from someone very near and dear to my heart. I realized that right now I am in the learning zone: dealing with challenges and problems, acquiring new skills and extending my comfort zone. For years I was stuck in the comfort zone: Feeling safe and in control. I hated my life or sometimes the feelings of the lack thereof. My life was not my own and had not been since I had my first baby at 15 years old. My life has always been about being a mom, a big sister and then a wife. I tried to balance all of these roles, make everyone happy and in the process I totally lost myself. My story is no different from most people. Change mostly comes when we are FORCED out of our comfort zones! I wasn't just forced I was pushed head first! My question to you guys is, what zone are you in? If you are still in the Comfort Zone, what keeps you stuck there? I know we get comfortable with routine and the familiar and it is scary to venture out into the unknown. Your comfort zone is neither a good or a bad thing but don't allow fear to keep you trapped in your comfort zone. Don't allow the negative head space where we allow all of our anxiety and stress procreate to become our constant state of being.

I challenge you today to take one step out of your comfort zone into the fear zone. Start with something small and stick to it!! I would love to hear about ALL of it!! Ask yourself this question every time you doubt yourself, what do I have to lose and if I lose it was it mine to begin with?

I want to leave you with infamous words of Tupac Shakur and the illustrious Poet Nikki Giovanni: "THE ROSE THE GREW FROM THE CONCRETE"

(Tupac)

You try to plant something in the concrete, you know what i mean? If it GROW, and the rose petal got all kind of scratches and marks, you not gon say, damn, look at all the scratches and on the rose that grew from the concrete. you gon be like damn! A rose grew out of all of this. Instead of saying, damn, he did this, he did this, just be like DAMN! he grew out of that, He came out of that? that's what they should say. All the trouble to survive and make good out of the dirty, nasty, unbelievable lifestyle they gave me I'm just trying to make something.

(Nikki Giovanni)

When no one even cared, The rose it grew from concrete. Keeping all these dreams provin nature's laws wrong. It learned how to walk without having feet. If came from concrete...