new year new definition of my comfort zone and how to avoid it like the plague

Oh 2016, you poor thing! I keep seeing all of these New Year’s posts where everyone is talking about spanking you, or grabbing you by the balls, or kicking your ass! So aggressive, I say! Well loosen up and get ready to be cuddled, my sweet friend, you and I are going to be friends with benefits! I’m not scared of you, not one little bit. I am looking forward to watching you unfold like a freshly cleaned sheet that was drying in the late afternoon sun! I am ready to tuck you in and feel you against my skin, I am ready to surrender to you as I drift off for a mid-morning nap on a lazy Sunday.

As my new favorite Coldplay song, Fun, says:

“Didn’t we have fun?
Don’t say it was all a waste
Didn’t we have fun?”

I like to think of this past year or any hardships I have had and just find the positives out of them, you know? I read somewhere that we are the masters of every next moment, or something equally as profound, I am paraphrasing here. But when you think about it, we are. Events are just events, how you react to them is up to you. I am choosing to embrace curiosity, and fear. I am choosing to leap out of my comfort zone and do something that I have never done before! And yes, I am scared. But when I stop and analyze what it is that I am scared of… it’s like… I can’t even quantify it. So I am becoming less scared, and transitioning that fear into excitement! Because honestly, what is the worst that can happen?

This week I had an epiphany. I realized that I have so many amazing people in my life with the most colorful stories! I know people that feel alone in what they are going through, though I know they are not alone, even if I don’t fully understand what it is they are going through. I know there is a community of people just yearning to be connected to one another, all over the world. Communities of people who can come together and celebrate their unity, or mourn grief collectively. Who have experienced the same thing, if in a slightly different way. Isn’t that what we all crave in life, when it really comes down to it? To feel connected?

And so. My idea was born from this past year and all that I have gone through… I am going to start a podcast! And I will call it: Eyes Up, Heart Open. See, this is how I choose to live my life, and how I choose to run my business.

There is the potential for rejection, for feeling vulnerable, but also for connection.

As far as details go, I am still giving this idea room to morph into what it is meant to be without putting too many restrictions on it. I want to basically sit with people and have a conversation about their lives. I want to laugh and learn and keep my heart open to their story. The crazy thing? This has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH PHOTOGRAPHY! As much as I love what I do (and boy, do I!) I feel a bit freer having this be about, well, anyone I want to chat with! I am looking for people who want to talk, about pretty much anything! I am working up a questionnaire to send to people interested, or if you have someone who you know has a great story to share, email me at carla@carlateneyck.com.

Already on deck, I have conversations scheduled with people who:

-have moved their business and life halfway across the country for love

-have spent their life looking for their biological family and then found them thanks to the wonders of Facebook

-have changed careers from photography to being a nutritionist and their lessons they have learned along the way and holy shit how excited this woman gets about kale is CRAZY

-have lost 21 years with their Dad who was wrongfully imprisoned for murder but was freed by DNA evidence years later

-are about to start creating art in the studio, and what that involves, what’s her process, what does she have to say and how does that come out in what she creates

-are happily married to both a man and a woman and what their daily life is like

-learned to play the drums after finding out her dad was a drummer and is now in a successful Zydeco band in Wichita and went on to place in a national contest on Prairie Home Companion

So…who wants to join the conversation? You do not have to be local to CT for this! email me at carla@carlateneyck.com and let’s talk!