I was reminded yesterday, of a quote I once read about armour being designed to protect the front of the body and not the back and that the reason for this is that we were not meant to run from our enemies, rather stand and face them head on.

I think that we can apply this idea to our selves. That we are meant to stand and face our own struggles, our own short comings, our own anxieties or frustrations head on and not turn away from them. If you run from your anxiety it will only chase you quicker. If you avoid your emotional pain or attempt to block out trauma it will grow, outside of your awareness most likely, and return to invade your life in other ways, seeping through your skin and into your dreams, or manifest itself in illness and sorrow, or in any other way that it can. And if you mount a greater defence and keep pushing it out or down, deeper and deeper, it will rise again because it wants to be heard. It wants to be accounted for. It wants to be resolved. It wants you to resolve it and it is resolute and it will not give up. The best you can do is find a way to stand and meet ‘it’ head on. Shake it’s hand, invite it in, let it invade you for a while so that you can then allow it to disperse. If it becomes a part of you it cannot creep up on you and surprise you, or at least if it does you are aware it is there and can account for its presence.

Perhaps therapy can be that armour for you – and support you, while you stand and meet ‘it’ head on, perhaps it is not therapy at all that works for you but something else. Regardless, if you run from yourself you will most likely be caught or ambushed when you least expect or you may have to live your life hidden away in an attempt to never meet what you fear. Fear breeds fear. While it can be tough to face what you most dread perhaps it would not be as tough as living the rest of your life waiting, always on alert for the next time ‘it’ rears it’s head or knocks at the door.