Comfort Zones and Convenience Traps

In my note on 29th June 2025, I have delved upon my inertia to write - and managed to express my difficulty into getting at purposeful writing. I have read about similar struggles from a fraternity - and was inspired by a challege one writer gave unto herself - to write 1000 words a day for 30 days at a stetch. At the outset it looks very daunting to me to attempt it - as I have attempted many such challenges on exotic topics to cultivate a discipline - Yoga, Jogs, reading a few pages a day - to name a few. While some started with gusto, they all ended as  "radio-silence from space !" Well - I tried. I will try again with this attempt. 

The title of this blogpost occurred to me at bedtime. It would have evaporated by dawn - so I made note of that so it could linger. 

Comfort Zones - are blindspots we slide into involuntarily. These are zones which give us an illlusion that we are having the best of times and that it is due to the best of our efforts. This illusion & comfort eclipses us from the outside world - and makes us impervious to diversity and variety that life offers by default. Comfort is what humans crave for, in return for hardwork. But the paradox is - the snugness of comfort  numbs our instincts - more quickly than we can take notice of. That inturn - limits one's abilities to respond to any anomaly in our sorroundings. It is only by a rude-shock that rids this slumber. It is not necessary that one should experinece such jerks - to lead a life of purpose. Having said - comfort zones are not areas of taboo. It is state-of-mind that we refuse to come out of. While there is no one-method that works for all to handle this scenario - a mere awareness of the need for change & some inspiration will go a long way to accepting variety - will go a long way to find one's own. 

I have not met with great success with change. The most difficult part for me was a limitng thought - that I did my best & the best should happen to me. But the point to ponder was - what if my best isn't good enough ? This opened up new vistas for me to think options and a wider horizon to explore. This exploration was sure more exciting than the zone I was locked-up in. I never regretted ever!   

Convenience Traps - Technology us helping humanity make great progress. While it has made many difficult things easier - in the guise of convenience, quite a bit of "mundaneness" has been removed from our daily lives. The mundaneness of going to store to pickup groceries, of watching a play in a theatre, of giving rides to friends etc. There is a "convenience" that we have been bought into in exchange of this mundane acts. They have been made to look as 'ineffective use of time". Many a time, there is also a "conveniece fee" that we end up paying for getting these done faster. While it is judicious to use tools of technology for sake of conveneince for difficult things - if the same robs the experience of doing things which are otherwise therapeutic - I would reckon, we all fall into a convenience trap. 

Just as I delved upon Comfort Zones, Options of Convenience when exercised for activities that can heal the mind & body - could possibly give us a more hands-on living !!! 

I could have given better examples for these 2 aspects I delved on. But I am confident discerning readers can understand the subtle. 

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AK

Instinctive Writing Vs Planned writing

The inertia to write has been herculean oflate. There is a lot of writing I do instinctively - taking a que from any topic I find resonance with - with friends - on whatsapp. It begins with writing long messages and notes to a few people - my mentor and my elder daughter Meghana and my classmates from college.  The messages are often long, in topics related to self-help, spirituality, wellness & care, an update on happenings of the times. These topics have a lot of flow, context, continuity and above all freshness. 

I also end up having long conversations the previous night, but the written notes to them do not find any connection to the topics discussed over a call. I never quite reflected on this deeply - but I have realized unless I find a sense of unbriddled self-expression withour fear of being judged, the thoughts do not flow freely. 

A lot of my long writing has also been on instinctive impulse - a response to a scenario or a qustion or a telling experience that I want to share. I am struggling with an inertia / block for planned writing. Thoughts on topics flow very well when in isolation or solitude or when I am in an allied context. But when it comes to writing them down to elaborate - content became a casualty of time & timing. 

I have tried my hand at writing with some blogs, which came in spurts - a few years ago. It gave me the confidence that I can write well. But I did not / could not continue. My writing did not have structure. Again because, these writings have been instinctive & impulsive - arising out of a need for identity and recognition - but not with a aim to create literary content or achieving a professional goal. 

Writing has to be driven by purpose - not for someone to know what we know - but for one's own unfolding. Expression of thoughts is the only proof of an "Ability to think". Thinking gets its manifestation in finding form - in words and sentences. A written word lasts longer than a spoken word - though in today's world - a spoken word too can be stored in the same 0 s & 1 s eventually (sic). But there is no better "earthing" to thoughts than "writing".  

So this blog is a promise to myself to graduate from "Instinct to Intent". 

It is difficult to train old-geysers (like me) with new habits - to convert Solitude to Substance. Let me revisit this more frequently. 

My gratitude to all - who have endured my sporadic verbal Diarrhea !!

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AK