I can trace the beginning of my conscience journey to discover happiness to the Jockey ad pictured below that I saw in a fitness magazine over ten years ago.

are you comfortable being…

For some reason the ad spoke to me even though at first glance, it doesn’t seem to make any sense. I mean, she is sitting in the middle of  what appears to be a forest, in a nightgown!  Really? Why is she sitting there?  Is she waiting for someone?  What is she looking at?  Where is the rest of this picture to tell me what she is doing there? My mind, which I sometimes refer to as “neurotic”, darted here and there searching for the who, when, what, and why?

Then I considered the caption:  “are you comfortable being…”  And away my mind when again: comfortable being what? A teacher? Comfortable being why? My underwear fits? I could only assume; it was an ad for Jockey.

But then I thought about how she is just sitting there, in the strangest of places, with no shoes appearing quite contented and comfortable and I considered the caption without the ellipses and posed it as a question: “are you comfortable being? And that thought was the catalyst that made me realize that some things needed to change because I could not answer “yes.”  I was not comfortable being.

I was uncomfortable being. I had a different guy and I knew it wasn’t going to work out but I wasn’t changing it. I had  a job that I had once enjoyed but it was fast becoming mundane and boring.  I didn’t do anything for fun; I didn’t really know what was fun for me. So, I set out on the journey to be “comfortable being.”

Years later, with a wonderful husband, a new career track doing what I am passionate about, a knowledge of some things that I find enjoyable, and a foot solidly in my thirties (which in all honestly could be the real reason for the improvement), I am more comfortable with myself and who I am.  Sure, there are things that I want to work on and continue to improve but I am getting there.  But the change began with the question. Are you comfortable being? Let me know in the comments/replies below.

enjoy life…