The Rusting of Our Inner Circuitry - The Importance of Getting out of Your Comfort
Three weeks ago I signed up for a 28-day yoga challenge to get closer to a long-held desire: doing a handstand.
It’s pushed me out of my comfort zone on so many levels: physically, mentally, emotionally. And it’s made me reflect.
So I’ve been thinking a lot about how comfort - something we often chase - isn’t always our friend.
In fact, in my research I have found that too much comfort, with no emotional, cognitive, or creative challenge, can biologically mimic depressive states. Not because something is wrong with us, but because something isn’t being used.
➕➖Use It or Lose It
When we underuse our brain and mind - our ability to focus, feel, reflect, and make meaning - we don’t just stagnate.
We atrophy.
Like a machine gathering rust, we grow dulled, rigid, and disconnected.
Passive consumption? Dulls critical thinking.
Avoiding challenge? Weakens resilience.
Over-comfort? Shrinks neuroplasticity and adaptability.
Isolation from meaning? Fuels existential emptiness.
And this isn’t just a poetic metaphor, it’s backed by neuroscience. When you outsource your feelings and thinking to Chat GPT, your serotonin and dopamine systems get negatively impacted, your prefrontal cortex engagement reduces and your executive function weakens.
🛠️ De-Rusting Ourselves
To stay vibrant and resilient, we need to re-engage with ourselves in simple, deliberate ways.
Start by choosing stretch zones - whether that’s a cold shower, a hard conversation, or taking the stairs instead of the lift. These small acts activate your brain’s resilience circuits and help boost serotonin.
Learning something new - a skill, an idea, even a different way of thinking - builds fresh neural connections and stimulates dopamine, the brain’s reward chemical.
Reflective journaling strengthens your prefrontal cortex (the part of the brain involved in self-awareness and regulation) while deepening your capacity to process and integrate emotional experiences.
Engaging in creative play - through art, music, or idea generation - reignites flexible, lateral thinking, helping you navigate complexity with more ease and imagination.
Meaningful dialogue with others trains your brain in empathy, moral reasoning, and perspective-taking, all essential for conscious, connected leadership.
And finally, embodiment practices like breathwork, movement, or meditation reconnect your mind and body, supporting more grounded emotional regulation.
It’s NOT about pushing yourself into burnout. It’s about purposeful discomfort. Tiny stretches. Regular engagement with life as it is.
💪Training the Brain Through Effort
Every time you choose the stairs, or sit with a hard feeling instead of numbing it - you're training your brain like a muscle.
You become less sensitive to discomfort.
Your defaults shift from what’s easy to what’s meaningful.
Neuroplasticity takes over - making effortful choices easier and more automatic in the future.
This is what I think of as mental fitness. And it’s foundational for embodied leadership.
🌿 Coaching, Not Correcting
This is also why coaching, especially embodied coaching, can be so powerful.
Unlike Western medicine, which treats discomfort as a problem to be solved by an expert…
In coaching (and Eastern traditions), we see discomfort as an invitation inward. A path to deeper awareness, agency, and self-trust.
We don’t diagnose.
We don’t override.
We believe in the client’s inner knowing, and we help them build the self-efficacy to face, feel, and figure things out.
That’s real growth. That’s embodied leadership.
✨ An Invitation to You
This week, choose one thing that feels effortful, and…. do it on purpose!
Walk the long way. Write the difficult message. Stay present in a moment of discomfort.
Stretch gently. Train your circuitry. Reawaken what’s rusting.
We’re not here to avoid discomfort.
We’re here to learn how to hold it with strength, grace, and a grounded sense of self.
Still mastering the pose, but with much more resilience
Dag
If you're a leader or tech startup exec who's feeling called to stretch your comfort zone - not for the sake of hustle, but to reawaken your inner capacity for clarity, resilience, and grounded leadership - I’d love to connect.
You can:
🖥 Visit www.dagmaraaldridge.com
📩 Email me at coaching@dagmaraaldridge.com
📅 Or use the ‘Book a Meeting’ button on my LinkedIn profile
Let’s explore what becomes possible when you meet discomfort with intention.
