VOICE OF THE VOICELESS

Why do we all have these insecurities that hold us back? We know they are there, we know what they are, and we know how small they are, but yet we can’t stop them from affecting us.

The dictionary definition of “insecurity” states: “uncertainty or anxiety about oneself; lack of confidence.” The second definition is: “the state of being open to danger or threat; lack of protection,” (dictionary.com, 2015).

With our brains wired to react to danger or threat, are we truly experiencing what culture has conditioned us to? Why is it when we stand up to do a presentation in class, we get nervous? Is it just that we’ve been conditioned to fear it? Believing that we are being judged by everyone in the room, when in reality, half of the people are listening and the other half is focused on what is next after class.

When you get around someone you like or have an interest in, before you acknowledge it, you can be just as comfortable with them as if they’re just any family or friend. Once you admit you like them or feel something towards them, you change the way you act. It’s no longer natural; you get nervous around them. You focus on not saying something stupid, not looking like a bum.

The insecurities we feel in these moments end up creating a fear of messing up that in the end causes us to mess up. Putting focus on something that was never a problem to begin with.

Have you ever heard the phrase “take a deep breath and act natural?”

These insecurities cause us to act unnatural to our normal nature. So how we do we stop this from getting to us, from it taking us out of our natural state?

We can’t stop it from happening most of the time, but what we can do once it has started is to remind ourselves of who we are. What we always did, and address what made us change.

Is it a feeling or a want to not mess something up? Things happen to us for a reason in this life to help us grow and learn from the past. If not, we would be doomed to repeat the past over and over again.

It takes us coming to a common understanding with ourselves to work past these insecurities to become better people. Sometimes it helps to write out the good and the bad. When we see something on paper, it shows us something that our mind built up to be big, to actually be something a lot smaller.

That is the biggest goal when fighting insecurities: making them smaller, more manageable. When we let them grow out of control is when we lose to them.