If we hold back for fear of getting hurt, do we hurt any less when the relationship does not work out? If we hold back from giving our all to hit a goal, do we feel any less disappointed if we miss the mark? If we temper our excitement about a possibility, do we really protect ourselves from feeling deflated?
How does pessimism help temper our pain? How does doubt, fear or reservation protect us? Protect us from what? What other than the past, and our thoughts dwelling there, has built up these walls of fear?
If we learn to heal thoughts about what happened to us and the meaning we’ve attached to those events, then we begin to trust again. Who is it that we learn to trust? When we change our thoughts, the world has stayed the same. We begin to understand that true power, courage and strength reside in our vulnerability. We are mistaken if we believe our vulnerability is our liability; for it is fear!
Is it possible that fear locks us into our past? If we close off our deepest self, then we isolate our ability to connect in a deep and meaningful way. We become rather busy, while doing very little. We sweat the small stuff, after all people can’t be trusted, so we are sure they our ‘out to get us’. We expect a hook with each kind gesture. We wait to be betrayed, because in our mind it’s only a matter of time.
Perhaps there is a hook in every kind gesture. What if we choose to enjoy the gesture anyway. Perhaps everyone is going to betray us, in some way, eventually. Do we fail to enjoy their loyalty while we have it? How does stifling our emotions do anything other than make us hard and bitter? When we are hard, who enjoys our company for very long? Who wishes to invest in us, when it’s obvious we have invested so little in ourselves?