Looking for Monsters

”We stopped looking for monsters under the bed, when we realized they were inside us.” Jordyn Berner

At some point in life, we all realize that the monsters that we most fear are not ‘out there’ (or under there…) they come from within. One of the most crippling places we can let ourselves fall into is a place called ‘ anticipatory anxiety.’  Anticipatory anxiety is what happens when we let the movie reel in our minds dictate how we feel. When we get caught up in watching our homemade feature film, we often become paralyzed with fear. We become afraid to move forward because we believe that what we are creating on the inside, is actually happening on the outside. It is absolutely no different from a child who becomes convinced that there is a monster under their bed. Children eventually grow to a place where they know those monsters are not real… but this logic does not always translate into adults being able to recognize this same truth.

As adults we call these childhood monsters by different names; bankruptcy, divorce, illness… And we don’t look for them under the bed, instead we cower in our todays because we dread the monsters wait in our tomorrows. It is the adult equivalent of huddling under the covers all night long because we are too afraid to make a break for safety… because of what we believe is lurking under the bed.

What monster has you stuck? And what part of your life are you missing out on because of this?

2 thoughts on “Looking for Monsters”

  1. When I was a child, it was the “alligators” under my bed who I was sure would eat me if I stepped out of bed. Now, it’s the “what-if-gators” that keep me paralyzed….what if I missed my chance, what if I try and find out I was never going to be good enough, what if mistakes from the past will continue to pay their consequences forward. I may “know” the Universe has my back and stepping forward will not cause me to be eaten alive, but it’s the leap of faith – out of bed to the safety of my parents arms – and out of what is comfortable and familiar into the life I want – that fear makes so scary.

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