A specific pattern pops up when triggered, and we can’t help but do whatever our pattern has us do. Much like a jukebox, when a button is pressed and a specific song is played.
For example:
One pattern you might have is you are deathly scared of spiders. Anytime anything that looks, moves, acts like a spider shows up in your periphery you jump and scream. You cannot control your reaction at that moment. That is a pattern.
Today I want to talk about this pattern: AVOIDANCE.
I have been thinking a lot about this pattern of late. It has recently come to my attention that I might be--am-- avoiding a major truth about a major area of my life. Also called, DENIAL.
I have a feeling this is a very common pattern amongst all sorts of people. At any moment, there is likely something that someone is avoiding.
It does not have to be a big thing. With the normal fast pace of life, there’s always things we are putting off, that we don’t want to be dealing with right now.
But the ‘avoidance’ pattern is even more specific.
We realize it is something important.
We may even consciously or subconsciously realize there is something we don’t like or want to face and thus why we are avoiding it.
Most likely we are scared of what might happen if we faced it.
CHANGE.
We'd experience changes, new things in our lives. Not the same old, same old over and over.
It’s an important pattern because if we went about our lives avoiding everything that made us uncomfortable, that would make our lives very small indeed.
That is the great thing about life. It pushes us, beyond where we feel comfortable.
That’s what makes life interesting. Exciting. Fun. Unpredictable.
I think we also avoid things because we fear we will not be able to handle the outcome. The truth.
We fear we are not strong enough.
And we’d rather not stir things up and embrace change.
I am certainly susceptible to all of this.
It can be easy to forget our own strength.
But if I think about what I’ve seen and experienced, I’d say that we are often SO MUCH stronger than we fear we will be.
And the times we face the hard things are exactly when we grow.
It is a leap. Of risk and faith.
I’m not saying it will be easy. It will probably be terrifically hard.
But I do believe it’s worth it.
JOURNALING PROMPT:
What do you sense you are avoiding in your life right now?
If you weren’t going to avoid it anymore, what might you do as a first step?
What is something incredibly hard you’ve gotten through in your life, that you initially weren’t sure you would get through, but you did?