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The term comfort zone is used to denote a type of mental conditioning resulting in artificially created mental boundaries, within which an individual derives a sense of security.

These boundaries tend to result in an internal state of mind, an example of which would be rigid attitudes and beliefs, which may not necessarily be true. This may or may not manifest as an external situation in the individual's life.

An example could be a recognised need to leave an unsatisfactory job but the fear of doing so as it would result in losing the sense of security the individual derives from the job. The sense of security the individual perceives could be attributed to the mental conditioning formed initially.

A comfort zone may result when the mental concept that (a) person(s) has/have about something and actual reality of it, are not congruent with one another. A classic example to take would be of self image.

Self-image may consist of three types:

1. Self image resulting from how the individual sees himself
2. Self image resulting from how others see the individual
3. Self image resulting from how the individual perceives others see him

These three types may or may not be an accurate representation of the person. All, some or none of them may be true.

Nonetheless, they may result in a mental conditioning due to the creation of mental concepts used to represent the actual person, distorting the perceptions of both the individual as well as others. It could also lead to cognitive dissonance - the state of unease or discomfort an individual experiences when actual reality doesn't correspond to the constructed mental image.