Day 165

'Guarded', Pen on Paper

It's common to worry about leaving yourself open or vulnerable to the many risks that exist in life whether they be the emotional, the physical or the potentially non-existent that are for some reason highly pertinent due to the hypochondriac in all of us. We find ways to protect ourselves from physical damage by actioning precautionary measures each time we decide to do something with a potential risk, draping ourselves from head to toe in purposely designed equipment whose aim is to make it hurt just that little bit less. We hide from emotional pain through various coping mechanisms such as humour, avoidance, denial and ignorance in the hope that steering clear will keep us from hurting just that little bit less. In the case of those dangers that we create out of nothing they are born out of a paranoia that resonates from the part of our minds steeped in anxiety, causing us to over think, overreact and overemphasise dangers that aren't really there. The difference here being that we create the possibility of grave danger and unimaginable consequences in a bid to justify our reason for avoiding something that is only mildly perilous. We tend to circumvent much of the potential confrontation in our lives as we are simply afraid of failing, of making a fool of ourselves or of becoming something we detest. It may also be a fear or losing something that when you actually think about it we only have a tenuous grasp of at best, as we are not prepared to throw ourselves in our entirety into it. It all boils down essentially to being scared of change and the notions of what change can bring, how relationships can change, how we cope with change and how change can catch us off guard. As a result it is sometimes difficult to overcome these fears and allow the possibilities of what could be to outweigh the worries of what we have decided will be. As I mentioned recently though there is no reward without an element of risk so whilst it is important to be careful, tread to carefully and we may never make our mark.