These past few days have featured a lot of travel. That travel has taken me to familiar places and unfamiliar places, places I probably wouldn’t have gone if left to my own devices. Who am I kidding, if left to my own devices my social anxiety would keep me in the house.

My brain is broken. It is broken in a way that makes me terrified of the everyday people in everyday crowds. It turns my own brain against me. And it reinforces the neural pathways that makes me feel safe, making it harder to break my broken brain and discover new things that might be beneficial for me.

Thankfully, I have people and reasons in my life to leave my comfort zone, even if it is only for brief forays. And I hope you find reasons to get outside your normal too. Because regardless of whether you have a mental illness or not, the fact is none of us grow if we don’t leave our comfort zones.