Challenge Yourself to Enhance Your Frequency

Moving through a challenge in your life is the ultimate frequency enhancer. Thing about it. It may seem scary or uncomfortable, but you can gain so much from getting to the other side of something difficult.

Some challenges are unexpected. However, you can also create self-imposed challenges that get you out of your comfort zone.

This is very helpful when you feel “stuck” in your life. Maybe you feel like that now. I have gone through periods like that, too.

You’re comfortable where you are in life, in work, in relationships, but then you get to a point when you are too comfortable. You may start to feel stagnant or even bored. That is because we are supposed to challenge ourselves regularly.

We are meant to keep learning and growing in life, and we can’t do that if we stay in our comfort zone. It may feel good for a while, but then we need to move forward so we can accomplish our goals, our mission in life.

I believe we all have a divine purpose in life. Often, this purpose requires us to get uncomfortable. In fact, that feeling is often a sign you are moving in the right direction!

I recently accomplished something big, something new and exciting, but also a little scary. Well, maybe a lot scary, but I did it and it changed me. I believe it raised my frequency for the better.

It was a self-imposed challenge to purposely get me out of my comfort zone.

Since then, I have been thinking about how other self-imposed challenges have shaped my life.

Even Highly Sensitive People Need Challenges

I was known as the extremely shy girl to anyone who met me when I was younger. At least that is what it looked like to the outside world. It is also what my mom told everyone when we met new people. . . I was slow to jump into new situations and get to know people.

I learned years later that I am what is known as a highly sensitive person (HSP). Because of this, I was always processing everything around me, fully analyzing a situation with all my senses, before moving forward. I thought everyone did this.

I might have seemed timid, but I did not let this stop me from trying new things. My HSP characteristics also gave me good instincts. Like knowing I needed to go to a high school across town rather than the all-girls high school down the street.

Looking back, I can’t believe my parents let me do it! However, the challenge of starting over with new peers changed my life forever.

Changing schools was my first self-imposed challenge. I ended up joining the color guard. We had an award-winning high school band, traveling to New York City in Junior year and Ireland the next year to perform in St. Patrick’s Day parades.

I might have seemed timid to the outside world, but I learned I loved to travel, try new things, and have adventures. It is what allowed me to build confidence in myself over the years, having the courage to try other challenges.

It also built resiliency. I might still be more introverted than not, but learning to experience the world and putting myself out there helps me to continue to grow.

It changes my frequency and how I react with the world. I am ready to meet what comes next.

It makes me who I am and who I aspire to be.

Pushing Myself Out of My Comfort Zone

Below are other examples of self-imposed challenges I have done over the years. Some adventures challenged me physically and/or mentally. Others were life-changing.

Each one taught me something new about myself and made me stretch outside my comfort zone.

• Moving to New York City on my own after college. I knew a high school friend was joining me after a few months, so there was a backup plan. In the meantime, I used an apartment rental agency to find a place to live.
• Traveling through Europe by myself in my 20’s for a week using a Eurail Pass. Here I learned I would rather travel with a friend. It is much more fun! I ended up cutting my trip short and meeting up with a cousin who lives in Holland.
• Riding a donkey down the narrow, winding paths of the Grand Canyon. A special challenge for me, as I had some bad experiences with horses when I was younger. A donkey was the perfect fit.
• White water rafting down the 1996 Olympic path on the Ocoee River in Tennessee. I was sore for a week. You use every muscle in your body to stay on board a raft while paddling as you go down the rapids! I highly recommend this one.
• Skydiving for my 35^th birthday. My favorite part was the free-falling! I was basking in the feeling and forgot to monitor my altimeter. (Now I realize that my body was likely in overwhelm.) Tip: Do not look at the altimeter at the same time your tandem partner pulls the cord to open the parachute if you want to avoid whiplash.
• Hang gliding in the TN mountains for my 45^th birthday. Finally, fully experiencing the exhilarating feeling of flying. Something I first felt for only a few seconds as a young Girl Scout during a troop demonstration on a shallow hill.)
• Hiring a makeup artist and photographer to do a photo shoot for my recent website update. I recommend everyone do this at least once! It is most definitely a frequency enhancer.
• And my most recent challenge of walking the runway in Milan Fashion Week. This challenge was a little much for my HSP self, but still very much worth it! I think I had an out-of-body experience in the process. At least it took my nervous system a couple of hours to calm back down, where I could be social again. 😊 (Learn more about this adventure here.)

Challenging yourself in your personal life spills out into other areas of your life. In my business life, it pushed me to cold call three big-name publishers early in my interior design career and get my first book published. Later in the holistic wellness space, I started blogging, eventually creating videos for social media, and most recently started guest podcasting.

I changed my frequency over time. It was a gradual process and not always perfect. However, each step in conjunction with my personal challenges gave me the confidence to do the next thing.

Everyday Challenges Are Important Too 

When you can accomplish a big goal, it makes the smaller ones much less intimidating. But not all challenges need to be so grand.

Even daily challenges also help us build resiliency. Things like picking up the phone and having that difficult conversation with a loved one. Going on a blind date. Attending a networking event or a new mom’s group on your own and putting yourself out there. Giving a talk in front of a group of people. Eating by yourself at a restaurant. Starting an exercise class at a new gym and sticking to it. Going a day without your smartphone. Sleeping under the stars.

In fact, to me, some of these smaller challenges are more intimidating than the big ones.

And, as you can see from above, some of the challenges I did were a little much for my highly sensitive self. I am still glad I did them, even if it took me some time to recover. It still shifted my frequency, my personal resonance, so that I can move through life with more confidence.

However, these temporary setbacks will not stop me from trying new things in the future.

You may not succeed at everything you try. Like some of my adventures, it might not turn out quite like you pictured. And that is okay. The important part is that you tried it! You put yourself out there!

You can learn from your mistakes and even try it again later if you want.

Continuing to Move Past the Shy Girl Inside Me

There is a lot more to me than that shy girl from my childhood.

Being born an HSP did make it difficult for me in school, especially in the early years. And when trying to make new friends. My saving grace back then was having four brothers and a large group of kids in our neighborhood, where we could play outdoors for hours.

Looking back, I also seemed to instinctively gravitate towards other highly sensitive people. (If you are reading this you may very likely be an HSP too.)

I often wonder what it would have been like if someone had explained to me back then what it meant to be highly sensitive. If I had been equipped with tools to better cope in the world, my childhood may not have felt so awkward.**

And, my adventures may have started much sooner. 😊

My next challenge is getting better at speaking live in front of large groups of people. That is a big one for me.

What is your next challenge?

** If you have a highly sensitive child and want to gain the knowledge and tools to help them thrive, please check out my online course Calming Tools for [Energy] Sensitive Kids. The tools and strategies that I teach work for HSP children of all ages. . . and adults too!!! (Usually, the parent gets as much benefit as the child.) Contact me if you want more information.