One thing is quite evident today—people are attracted to what they relate to or feel. So the fact that you even picked up this book is interesting. What’s going on inside you that drew you to this title? Feeling stressed? Life in a mess? Or are you just curious? Are you yourself a walking warning label? One thing is for sure: it’s not too late to change what you might think is the inevitable. As you begin this journey we will take a step-by-step honest look at some crucial factors that will bring you valuable insight and diffuse your current stresses and pressures.
We must begin by realizing that what we feel is often masked by a subtle gesture of socially-acceptable exchanges such as the common smile or the simple question, “How are you?” In the nearly automatic response to that question—“I’m good; how are you?”—we consciously and/or subconsciously express a fear. To answer the question with a real answer might bring a problem to the surface that would then make others uncomfortable and interfere with engaging in further conversation. So we suppress it and give the standard acceptable response.
Hiding in seclusion within the depths of our souls, our minds tend to navigate toward a quieter, less vulnerable resolution. We all have, unfortunately, beheld the circumstances that arise from the secret and hidden pressures that we have faced. The only detrimental attribute to these situations is that more than one person is critically injured, so often bringing destruction to innocent bystanders—our family and friends.
Isn’t it ironic that so many times we have seen the warning labels very distinctly marked on pressurized containers, and yet we fail to realize the same warning signs on ourselves? Are we oblivious to the obvious? It could be that we just don’t pay attention at this level. Whether we see it as yet or not, there is clearly a relationship between what we hold in our hand (a container that has been forcefully injected with a mixture of some sort to maximum capacity) and our current mental state. People are containers, are we not? We can hold in what we take in; we can let out what we feel. And just like that we become a container—a dispersing instrument.
So what about those of us whose minds have been forcefully injected and filled from the onslaught of one problem after another, one problem on top of another? Ah! So the pressure of circumstances continues to expand within us, leading us to exhibit a silent label that reads, Warning! Contents Under Pressure!
The dangers of reflecting this warning label are quickly seen when we look at it in this way. In reality we are not the only ones wearing this warning label. Rather, people all around us—some we know, some we don’t know—are dealing with their own pressures, too. They all have their own labels just like ours. We can see how volatile the situation can become as we mix all these “dangerous containers” together. Not only is there a risk of bringing harm to one’s own self, but it is possible, and perhaps even likely, that harm can be irresponsibly brought to those innocent ones around us. When we come to the point of feeling and becoming so overwhelmed, so overtaken and overworked, it will be the innocent that will be overlooked. We must come to see that preventive measures must be set up in order to preserve not only our own lives, but the lives of those we love.
We are so often driven to escape the pressures of our own perceived thoughts that we forget that this montage only hurls us in a downward spiral ending in tragedy. The word montage means any combination of different elements that forms or is felt to form a unified whole, single image, etc. Our own cognitive picture of what we interpret as a real truth is nothing more than a real lie. So in turn, we tend to lose ourselves in the struggle between escaping and remaining.
The increasing questions of confusion, doubt, frustration, and anger expand within us. This leaves us vulnerable to the lies that seem so overwhelming and so true. The lies cause us to enter into a shallow grave of despair. And thus the declaration is made that life is unfair, all hope is gone, all is lost, but not realizing that truly, all is yet to be found.
We as individuals are so different, yet we are the same. We are all born with the innate desire to feel and be wanted, to feel and be loved, to feel and be appreciated, to know our destiny and walk in it. Still there remains for millions of people an emptiness that has yet to be filled. In the constant experiencing of trials, tribulations, and tragedy along life’s highway, they discover a road that only winds itself in a giant circle. This pathway leaves them with the impression that it is impossible for their lives to change. This thought—this lie—leads to a desperate attempt to seek an exit ramp.
With so much pressure building up inside, hiding from those who are oblivious to our condition (which we think should be so obvious to all), we struggle on in quiet desperation. In this condition how can we possibly find one who will see our hidden tears? Who will hear our silent screams? Or comfort our unexpressed depression? Why is the expressed and very often prideful persona allowed to choke out the very cry for help we so desperately need? Why do we choose to bathe in a sea of despair and darkness when we can bathe in a Heaven filled with joy and light?
Some of the problem lies with the people who think they know us, but they don’t really know us at all. Problems buried within the realm of our minds tend to hide themselves even in the best of us.
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