This multi-part post will explore what it means to feel safe in this world.
It occurs to me that personal safety and security are paramount to the quality of your life.
Is it possible to evaluate your overall wellness, based on your sense of safety?
And, is it also possible to increase your sense of security, from the inside, out?
I believe it is!
Throughout this series, we’ll illuminate this concept of safety, and provide tools to work with, and through, the unsettled states that leave us feeling vulnerable and disempowered.
Safety means different things, at different times of life.
Arguably, the earliest years — newborn to ten, are typically (but, not always) the safest, with parents and caregivers watching over us, and out for us, all hours of the day and night.
We’re fed, cleaned, clothed, rocked, and guided, as we learn to walk, talk and grow our independence.
The second decade of life presents parents and teens with their first big doses of unpredictability. And where there’s risk, safety fluctuates and wanes.
By the time we reach decade three, when adulthood officially begins, we’re basically “on our own”, with the safety nets that parents were holding tightly, easing from their grips.
At this point, we’re juggling the pressures to house, feed, clothe, and entertain ourselves. We’re paving our career paths, and getting insured, so we can keep up with doctors, dentists and all that is required to maintain some semblance of wellness.
Safe and Sound? Maybe not yet.
When it comes to feeling secure, let’s look at just a handful of the common aspects that can affect it — day by day, moment by moment:
relationships
health
finances
career/ambitions
state of the world and national politics
natural and human-made crises (climate change, gun violence, equality, etc.)
Have you attempted to control each of these arenas of your existence, so that they run smoothly and consistently, without disruption or stress?
How’s that working for you?
Truth be told, we cannot effectively control what comes and goes in our external lives.
But, we can absolutely learn to cultivate our internal resources, that allow us to become more resilient in the face of unwanted and unexpected change!
Action?
Between now, and the publishing of Part 2 next week, can you identify those things that make you feel unsafe? Simply jot them down in a journal or computer notes.
No need to dwell or give rise to negativity — if you can help it.
Observation and reflection are keys to paving pathways of being awake, aware and open to new possibilities.
These action steps are the first that can lead you toward freedom; for your head, your heart and your nervous system!
Now…take a breath in through your nose (count to 4).
Release that breath out your mouth (count to 6).
I invite you to repeat the phrase below as often as you can remember — day or night — for the next week.
May I be safe and secure.
May I be safe and secure.
May I be safe and secure.
Ahhh…help is on the way.
As we continue through the decades, there is do much more that makes us feel unsafe. Our careers are threatened by our advancing age,our children are grown and we can't keep them safe. Our parents die, marriages end,our eyesight dims,our hearing fades. To feel safe we learn to warmly welcome help from all sides and don't pretend we are still strong and independent. The skills you teach for feeling safe will continue to help us in these latet years and I thank you for writing this.
Thanks, Cassie! It was great to see everyone Wednesday!
Are you asking particularly about this that make us feel unsafe? Or also things that trouble us or create discomfort?