The Tropical Island

[Bill]

Imagine you own a yacht (nice a!) and each day you sail across the sea to work which you have done for many years before.

One day halfway across the sea, you encounter a storm. Your yacht sinks, you lose consciousness and find yourself laying on the beach on a tropical island.

There is no one around but the trees are plentiful with coconuts, the plants are full of berries and there is running stream with plenty of fresh water. However, you are alone and isolated not knowing where you are.

As you sit there contemplating what to do, you think of building a raft but your mind is filled with lots of doubts. how far is it to land, what if another storm appears, what if you run out of food/water, will you make it home etc.

You decide in the end it's not worth the risk. You have enough to eat and drink on the island even if you are alone and isolated. Days go by, then months and even years.

Then one day a hurricane blows in and all the trees are blown over. There is no food. The water has become contaminated with sea water. You cannot survive.

You decide you have to build the raft with the trees that have blown down and you prepare as well as possible to combat all the doubts that have prevented you from attempting to leave before.

With all the preparation in place, you set off. After only a few metres you suddenly hit an invisible wall that has merged with the sea and sky to hide it's existence. As you feel around you realise it must surround the whole island and you've been living in a bubble.

You step off your raft and discover the water is only a metre or so deep and then you suddenly notice some steps you had never seen before. You walk up the steps to a door which you open and find that since the time your yacht had sunk, you and many others had been abducted to be experimented on to find out how the human race would cope if they felt trapped and isolated...

... but You are now free.

And the moral of the story...

Through life we encounter stress that can become too much and sink us leaving us feeling afraid, trapped and isolated at home with feelings of no hope of being free until that is we learn how to combat anxiety and feel strong enough once more to leave our islands. We then realise that the only power anxiety has is in its symptoms that feel so real they constantly trap us at every turn when in fact they are naturally produced by doubt and fear and in reality can do no harm.

Think of the man in these videos as you and the TV producer and nurse etc in these clips as your anxiety and fears attempting to control and restrict you for it's benefit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jeCZE5iq0o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gn5kuDdeGzs

[snowghost57]

Imagine you own a yacht (nice a!) and each day you sail across the sea to work which you have done for many years before.

One day halfway across the sea, you encounter a storm. Your yacht sinks, you lose consciousness and find yourself laying on the beach on a tropical island.

There is no one around but the trees are plentiful with coconuts, the plants are full of berries and there is running stream with plenty of fresh water. However, you are alone and isolated not knowing where you are.

As you sit there contemplating what to do, you think of building a raft but your mind is filled with lots of doubts. how far is it to land, what if another storm appears, what if you run out of food/water, will you make it home etc.

You decide in the end it's not worth the risk. You have enough to eat and drink on the island even if you are alone and isolated. Days go by, then months and even years.

Then one day a hurricane blows in and all the trees are blown over. There is no food. The water has become contaminated with sea water. You cannot survive.

You decide you have to build the raft with the trees that have blown down and you prepare as well as possible to combat all the doubts that have prevented you from attempting to leave before.

With all the preparation in place, you set off. After only a few metres you suddenly hit an invisible wall that has merged with the sea and sky to hide it's existence. As you feel around you realise it must surround the whole island and you've been living in a bubble.

You step off your raft and discover the water is only a metre or so deep and then you suddenly notice some steps you had never seen before. You walk up the steps to a door which you open and find that since the time your yacht had sunk, you and many others had been abducted to be experimented on to find out how the human race would cope if they felt trapped and isolated...

... but You are now free.

And the moral of the story...

Through life we encounter stress that can become too much and sink us leaving us feeling afraid, trapped and isolated at home with feelings of no hope of being free until that is we learn how to combat anxiety and feel strong enough once more to leave our islands. We then realise that the only power anxiety has is in its symptoms that feel so real they constantly trap us at every turn when in fact they are naturally produced by doubt and fear and in reality can do no harm.

Think of the man in these videos as you and the TV producer and nurse etc in these clips as your anxiety and fears attempting to control and restrict you for it's benefit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jeCZE5iq0o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gn5kuDdeGzs

You are correct Bill that anxiety and fear traps us. We have the power within us to release of these traps. We have to slow down and find those steps that lead us out of our bubble.