ACCEPTANCE
Today's theme is barriers.
There are two types of barriers:
- Physical barriers. These might be outside a concert, in an airport etc.
- Mental barriers. Barriers that we build up.
Barriers help to save us from embarrassment, and from pain. If we build up a barrier against asking people on a date, we can never be rejected. We can never experience this embarrassment. Similarly, if we build up a barrier against something that has previously caused us harm (whether it's a person, or a place), then we can't be hurt by it again.
But if we keep building up barriers, then are we really living our lives? Are we experiencing anything? More and more bad situations will keep occurring, we'll set up more and more barriers, and eventually we'll be stuck alone, doing nothing, isolated by all these barriers we've built up.
I liked the image above quite a lot. Because really, we don't know what's on the other side of our barrier do we? Now, I know it could be not so good. After all, that's why we have put up these barriers in the first place. From a bad experience, or to AVOID a bad experience. But imagine you are the red person. You feel alone, isolated and unwanted. You've blocked yourself out from the people you used to love and care about, because you didn't want to hurt them; or be hurt by them. You've built up a barrier, and it's obscuring your view. If you let down this barrier, you would see all the people waiting to love and support you.
If we don't break down our barriers every so often, we'll never know what we are missing out on.
Now, it isn't always going to go right. In fact, as the man on the left has shown, it can go wrong, time after time after time. But each second is a fresh start. Ditch new year's resolutions. You don't need to wait for a new year to change! Every second of your life is a chance to change. And you might fail again, you might continue to fail, but one day you WILL succeed.
It's scary. As I've said, we build up these barriers for a reason. And that's ok! It's ok to be cautious, in fact it's rather sensible. If you decided to stop looking every time you crossed the road, you'd come into trouble rather quickly. Being cautious is ok.
But in the same way, there are times that we are over cautious. Get in touch with that friend again, try a new outfit, continue trying to learn that instrument, try again to find your inner happiness.
Realistically, what's the worst that's going to happen?
I'd like to leave you with a thought.
What have you continuously failed at, that you are willing to try again?
Because after all, if you never try, you'll never know what could have happened.
Bye for now,
An Alphabet of Thoughts x
(None of the images are my own. Below is the link to where they were found. If anybody is unhappy with my use of the images, please let me know and I will happily take them down.
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