protection
What if?
What if every negative thought I have is actually a form of protection?
Like, when I think I can’t do something. Or I compare myself to someone else. Or I think small instead of expansively.
What if those thoughts are trying to keep me safe?
What if every time I do something self-destructive—eat too much, sleep too little, etc.—it’s really a form of protecting myself, too. Because perhaps I’m trying to cope with something that’s bugging me in the best or only way I know how at that moment in time.
Life’s overwhelming.
Might as well have nachos.
At least nachos don’t talk back or let me down.
What if my beliefs—the very ones that hold me back—serve a fundamentally important and self-caring purpose? And what if that purpose is protection? The beliefs that tell me not to try something new because it might fail or someone might make fun of me. To not publish something because I might get a one-star review. To think that it might flop, so I shouldn’t even try.
What if those thoughts—that on the surface seem destructive—are actually a clumsy way of protecting myself from being hurt.
I tell myself I might fail so no one else does. (Or when someone else does, I have already gone through the experience, so it doesn’t cause as much pain. Because no one can cause me as much pain as me.)
So, here’s my thought.
I’m starting to notice my negative, limiting beliefs and thank them for protecting me. They’re self-defense mechanisms here to help keep me safe. I don’t need to be pissed at them. I can allow them in.
Thank you.
But I don’t need their help anymore. I can do this thing—life, project, change—without them. In fact, I think they actually hinder whatever it is I want to do because they make me believe it’s impossible.
Thank you, every negative, limiting belief.
Every time you told me I was too old, too young, too fat, too thin, too female, too early, too late, too quiet, too outspoken, etc. to do what my heart truly desires.
I recognize your services in protecting me.
But I can take it from here.
