Why is it that the harder we try to stay in the “safe” zone, we actually feel more hostile and afraid?
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We chase the safe and secure jobs until we realize that we may lose it at any time.
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We save our money, holding onto it, attached to it in fear that we may never have enough.
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We follow a beaten path because we’re told that it is the only way to have a good life. Otherwise the unknown is too unsafe. Killing off our dreams in the fear of “failing at life”.
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We hold ourselves back from expressing our truth and how we really feel because we’re told to hold it in and shut up all the time. And to only say the “right” things we’re told to say.
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We dress a certain way, behave a certain way, walk a certain way in public because it isn’t safe to be different. Otherwise, we risk standing out and getting judged for it. So it’s best to just be a copy and “play it safe”.
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We keep doing the same things, acting the same way, afraid to change, otherwise, people will question us in comparison to how we normally appear and we don’t want to look like a fool.
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Believe me, I get all that because that’s how I used to live my life. It’s painful and exhausting!
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The whole time I knew something wasn’t right, but I kept going so that I can be accepted.
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One of the biggest realizations I’ve had is that the “safe” zone or the comfort zone is a reaction of our primal side.
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We can’t deny it that we are born with a natural defense mechanism from our very nature of being a human in a world of order and chaos.
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Now here’s the thing it used to be solely used for physical survival, just like any other creatures on the planet.
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However, nowadays we live in a relatively safe environment and so that defense mechanism is no longer used for physical protection. In order to continue to serve its purpose, like everything in this world, it’s now being used for psychological survival.
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And because most of us don’t know how to become aware of our thoughts and emotions, understanding how and why they come up, and learning how to see them objectively, we go about our lives desperately trying to get back to the “safe” zone.
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The impact of this way of being is that so many of us live with a great deal of anxiety, even doing the simplest things.
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We were mostly thought to run away from our emotions and fears. To ignore them. Push them down. In fact, as soon as we think of or speak about our fears it is minimized because most of us don’t know how to deal with them.
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It’s no fault of anyone, for most of us we simply didn’t know any better.
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And now we live in a time where we have so many guides and tools to helps us discover this within ourselves, become aware of them, and give us the ability to trust ourselves to go beyond the “safe” zone.
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To challenge ourselves every day to step into the unknown where we discover that there is nothing to fear, that it’s safe to allow our emotions to rise, that we can release ourselves from all the endless mental streams of thoughts, feeling secure within ourselves to experience everything in life with presence, that we are in fact limitless…
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And of course actually, be fearless and at peace instead of afraid and hostile.
The Safer We Live, The More Hostile We Feel
