Fancy victorian lettering and foreign-sounding organic ingredients still don’t cover the fact that I question whether or not the $25 face wash I’m using is somehow superior to the $5.99 bottle that carried me through my teenage breakouts. That’s another story for another time.
Two people can drink the same glass of wine, pint of beer, or sip of whiskey and taste entirely different things. The conniseur of alcohol will deeply inhale through the nose before ever taking a sip; deeply taking in the aromas and full flavor of the drink. While the go-lucky party-hard student may hold their nose and simply do whatever it takes to get the alcohol into their bloodstream so they can enjoy a night on the town.
While driving, I thought about the idea behind emotions and the prospect of being a ’sensitive’ person at my core. Often, being sensitive is seen as a crippling weakness in our “only the strong survive” mentality. Yet, life is more frequently a chess game that must be played with thought and care, rather than a boxing match where you simply have to slug it out.
A little-known fact about Charles Darwin was that he suffered from severe depression, to the point he couldn’t even get out of bed and work at times.
Being prone to an emotional roller coaster can be a dangerous thing if you aren’t properly strapped in to your cart; just as if riding a regular roller coaster without a harness is a lethal action. However, when you are able to safeguard yourself and allow yourself to brave the lows, you benefit from the experience of soaring to new heights many are scared to embrace in their life.
I’ve seen this displayed in romantic relationships as well, where one individual is too frightened – on a conscious or subconscious level – to experience the full depths of their emotions for another. “Playing it safe” to prevent the potential for heartbreak or pain.
It’s hard to imagine how a ‘play it safe’ person could respond to a tragic accident where their lover is permanently confined to a wheelchair, or to tough it out during a time of financial crisis.
We have a relatively short life, with each day passing and slipping away into a memory. The greatest joys I’ve experienced in my life have been accompanied by some of the greatest struggles. However, there’s no part of me that would exchange the two or lower the levels of intensity for the sake of safekeeping.
Passion with your work/career must be accompanied by investing the time, money, and energy into reaching your goals. Love in a relationship must be accompanied by respect, time, integrity, and passion. Self-worth must be carved out of being willing to evaluate yourself and being willing to work on the parts of your life that have the capacity to hurt you – while developing and strengthening the parts that can help you.
I have felt as if I’ve come close to being thrown from the ‘roller coaster’ on many levels in the past few weeks. And I still hope to go bigger, faster, stronger, and deeper to new levels.
Featured Image From Deviantart
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