Stretching your boundaries 1

When stretching your boundaries, you are also changing your perspective on things, often unnoticed by yourself. After the change, others might feel a distance to you, which makes you feel lonely. It’s up to you how far you want to change, how big the distance should grow, how to deal with it. If you put effort into a good relationship to your dear ones, it can bridge the distance.

Feeling stiff
Two months ago I started to workout again, my body is as flexible as never before. Here a bit bragging: standing with stretched knees and bowing, I can not only reach my toes with my fingertips, I can put both hands flat on the floor! I was never able to do so, until last week! How ever, I felt very stiff last Monday. How come? I think that with stretching the boundaries of my muscles and chords, my perception on stiffness and flexibility has changed as well.

Change of perspective
Every expansion of our borders means a change of perspective. Do you remember the pain in your fingertips and the difficulty to play the most simple chords in the first weeks when learning to play guitar? Or standing in the spot lights at your first performance, trying to remember the words of your songs? You’ve outgrown that situation by now, I’m sure. Your goals have grown too, simple chords are not enough anymore, you can dream the lines of your songs. With the change in perspective, your expectations also have grown.

Distance and loneliness
Change of  perspective comes in may ways. When literally I crossed the border and moved from Germany to the Netherlands, I suddenly felt a true European, a world-citizen. The downside is, that it created a distance to my parents and siblings. They have a close bond to the region and often they can’t share my new perspective on things. That has made me feel very lonely by times, until I realized that it’s up to me to take some effort to keep in touch, I’m the one who changed. Since I’ve accepted that responsibility, I’ve a good relationship to them again, even if they can’t see it from my perspective.

Expanding boundaries
When pursuing your dream of a career with music, every step you take means expanding your boundaries, broadening your perspective. As long as you are curious, it’s very exciting! Only later you realize the distance to people you love and it feels very lonely. It’s up to you how far you want to go, how much you want to stretch your boundaries, how good you are in being lonely, how far you want to go in putting in some effort to keep in touch to your loved ones.

Continue to stretch
I will continue with my daily workout and with stretching my muscles and chords. It makes me feel good. And I’ll continue to stretch other boundaries too. It makes me feel flexible in my perception of what’s going on.