What Does Being “Safe” Mean to You?

When you hear the word “safe,” what does it conjure up for you? The word “safe” can have so many meanings. Do you imagine an umpire signaling “safe” as a baseball player slides across homeplate? Do you picture a kid playing hide-and-seek, landing at the “safe” tree seconds before his seeker? Do you think about being indoors during a hurricane, hoping that you and your family will be “safe” from the ravages of the storm?

Physical Safety

It used to be, whenever I thought about the word safe, I thought only about physical safety. I’m fortunate that I’ve never really had to worry about someone intentionally harming me–I know that’s not true for far too many people. But there are accidents to avoid and reasonable self-care to practice. That’s where my thoughts would go when safety was mentioned.

Emotional Safety

Later, I learned about emotional safety, which wasn’t a pervasive concept when I was growing up–recognizing, avoding, or preventing emotional abuse wasn’t something people were used to. Yet the results of emotional abuse or neglect are seen clearly in many people’s lives in the fear they have about certain things or what they avoid doing. Risk-averse behaviors can be limiting.

Fear of Failure

Babies keep getting up when they fall. They keep trying to stand and walk until finally, they build the skills they need to achieve that goal. How many of us stop trying to do something when we meet with a failure? Sometimes we don’t even try at all because we don’t want to risk failing. Somewhere early in childhood, we may have learned that it’s not okay to fail.

Fear of Being Seen or Heard

If you grew up in a home where it was uncomfortable or even dangerous to be seen or heard, beliefs that it’s not safe to be seen or heard anywhere can wreak havoc in your adult life. Do you quake at the thought of speaking in public? Is it hard to express your opinion in a group–or even to one other person? Do you even know your opinion anymore?

Scarcity Mentality

We all know people who can’t spend money because of the fear they will run out of it. Many of us had family members who lived through the Great Depression in the United States ninety years ago. They had a fear of running out of many things, and their spending and storing habits reflected that. The belief that there is not enough can apply to many things in addition to money or food. Some people think there is a limited supply of clients or resources, and this affects how they approach their business. Some people feel like there is never enough time. Granted, the number of minutes in a day is finite, but how we use them and think about them makes all the difference!

Fear Causes Stress

No kidding! But avoiding the cause of the fear isn’t nearly as effective as changing your perception of that cause. Then you don’t have to spend your energy NOT doing things and can focus on actually DOING the things you want to do. If you’ve been following me for a while, you know you can change those beliefs.

Want to Know More?

Feeling safe is one of the Truths that I write about in my book Your4Truths: How Beliefs Impact Your Life. This will be published on November 11, 2021, by Highlander Press. Between now and October 21, 2021, I invite you to become a launch partner to highlight this important book to as many people as possible. There are so many people who have no idea about the impact of their subconscious beliefs or that they can change things that they have just learned to accept. They don’t need to live with those limitations. If you feel led to help me with my launch and help change lives, you can read more about it and sign up here. Thank you in advance!