I live in Scotland, for most of the year it’s cold and dreary and it rains far too much. However in the last few days we’ve been lucky to see some sunshine and warmish weather. I was eager to get outside and soak up some sun and get some healthy vitamin D. I have been out relaxing in my backyard having barbeques and friendly banter.

The more the sun shines the more layers of clothing humans seem to take off. My item of choice is my shoes. I love feeling the ground beneith my feet, it’s a rare opportunity.

Today I had to go off to university to catch up on some work, and so I walked the mile or so to and from in my bare feet. I was almost back to my house when I stumbled upon a metaphor that I thought worked really well.

In an urban area such as mine the pavements and roads have a decent amount of small pebbles and stones and unfortunately a fair amount of razor sharp glass that some uncaring fool has smashed on the ground. Life is like the pavements and roads near me, it’s full of stones, and things that can hurt you, it’s a big risk to walk barefoot, it’s a big risk to take on life. People are so afriad of stepping on life’s stones and glass that they come up with innovative ways to overly protect themselves from injury. And thus shoes are born, alas they have a mighty big drawback, they disconnect you from feeling the ground or in this case the protective layers people put up prevent them from feeling life. These protective layers come in many forms sometimes they are physical and other times they are emotional.

Some protection is good, some protection is required.

Problems arise however when people use too much protection or use protection when none is required they forget that we were given eyes so that we could see and find a way around these risks. They get so used to feeling safe and certain, they begin to fear what is natural. It is natural to experience pain and setback, it is natural to fail, if you never go through these you will never ever learn how to succeed.

Many years ago when I used to suffer from social anxiety I protected myself by not going out, by not speaking to anyone, by not having anything in common with anyone (or at least that was my perception), I was looking at anything except the road to try and pretend it didn’t exist. To get past my familiarity with safety and certainty I had to take off my proverbial shoes, I had to reconnect with life, I had to face my fears.

It’s a shitty feeling I know. I’ve gone through it all and some time ago I came out on the other side. After emerging I have gone on to be very successful in many things that I have done. I have also failed and continue to fail at things also.

So here is your task for today, take a look at your life, where are you avoiding things? What is it that you are avoiding? What feelings does your emotional protection prevent you from feeling in those situations? Now use your favourite personal change technique to remove those limiting feelings.