We fear attacks from the outside.
So we build a wall.
It makes us feel safe.
But inside we slowly die.
A slow, painful, personal death.
There is an exercise that I use to help me understand people with whom I am working. The exercise dives deep into their subconscious minds.
I won’t disclose the mechanics of the exercise, but I will say that usually there’s a wall involved.
Individuals know they build a wall to shield themselves. Walls are defense mechanisms for fear of the outside world.
We are hurting inside, frail, uncertain…
So we recede into our own shell, often changing our personalities, and we hide behind our wall.
We know it’s there, and there is a temporary feeling of safety, but the wall helps us die a slow death on the inside.
We are our own worst enemy, and we are harmful enough to ourselves, so we protect ourselves from outside attacks.
We can’t handle attacks from both the inside and the outside. There’s not enough of us to go around…
So we hide from the others. And we beat ourselves senseless.
There is self-harm in changing ourselves and our approach to the world, and when we put up walls, it creates even more pain and suffering.
We are lying to ourselves every single day, and those lies create personal disharmony.
When we lie to ourselves daily, we project that we are being lied to by the outside world.
Our inner feelings create our outer reality. We expect from the outside what we feel inside.
We are our own worst enemy.
We often feel that the only way to heal is to build a wall.
But the wall acts as slow-acting cyanide would in a patient with a common cold.
The symptoms become worse over time until there is no life remaining.
But we feel that there is no option.
So we continue to exist, already dead inside, an artificial image facing the world.
And we feel that is all that there is to life.
We look at people with no walls up, no guard, just being themselves, and we are jealous.
If only we could have what they have. If we could only have their gifts, their talents… their courage…
Life would be easier.
So we continue to hide behind our wall, not aware that the wall is creating the disconnect.
The wall, what we thought was the answer, is the problem.
When I help people begin to dismantle their walls, they often see that small steps forward are applauded by the world.
The applause is often loud, encouraging, embracing.
People who drop their walls feel the overwhelming love from individuals with their walls still up.
And as the wall crumbles, the world applauds louder.
And people with their walls up feel as though this applause is not available to them. They are different.
If only…
The wall is the problem.
And they continue to hide.
As some heal while their wall crumbles, others still hide, afraid of the pain outside the wall.
But the only pain is inside.
I can recognize the wall. I can feel the wall. I feel the individual’s desire to dismantle the wall.
I encourage you to seek freedom. The world outside of your wall is not painful.
The pain lies inside.
Today, I encourage you to seek freedom…
Freedom from your wall, your prison, your slow death.
Happiness is available to you, just like it is to everyone else.
I know the way because I’ve hidden behind my own wall in the past.
I had to dismantle mine to recognize any true happiness.
I will hide no more.
My wall continues to crumble.
Yours can too.
Make a decision today to begin showing the world who you truly are, and listen for the applause as your wall falls brick by brick.
—
Previously published on mikekitko
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