I came across a link to video Possessed sometime back. The video touched and stayed with me for days. While not a compulsive hoarder, I believe all of us hold on to some things for life. We all have some gifts, some snaps, things which are special to us kept locked up. And if we all do hold on to things for the moments it represents, how far off is thinking that we all hold onto thoughts and moments in our minds as well.

While possessed video talks about being possessed by the things we buy, what about being possessed by our negative experiences and memories.

It is said that a child has unlimited potential. And is blessed to see the world and self so. As this child grows, while the potential remains, belief in being unlimited goes away.

Often negative experiences scar us for life, they limit our worlds, they limit our possibilities. It’s as if these experiences have a strong hold on us, as if they possess us. We may stop believing in ourselves, we may stop believing in relationships; sometimes it’s subtle – we might just set some boundaries for ourselves. Over a period of time, experience after experience, boundary after boundary, our life can really get limited. The worse part is, we forget the reasons why those boundaries were set. We forget that “we” had set boundaries. And we start believing that we are limited.

While we all do have unique experiences that lead us to limiting ourselves, the reasons are the same. We limit ourselves to play safe. To avoid pain, avoid loss, avoid failure, avoid embarassment, avoid humiliation … the list could go on. What we ofcourse don’t realise is that we stand to lose more by playing safe. Innumerable opportunities of growth and success, unlimited possibilities of love, happiness and relationships and most importantly truly living life.

The cost is huge. When we try to avoid certain negative aspects of life by playing safe, we also lose out on all the potential positive outcomes of life. And I often wonder, whether being safe is worth this. What’s the whole point of playing safe if I stand to lose more than before. Isn’t the cost of playing safe bigger than what I am trying to avoid by playing safe in the first place? Wouldn’t it be better to be sorry for making mistakes than being safe and not making mistakes at all?