Notes From The Awareness: 333

Our armor prevents us from receiving.

Please discuss. How does this play out in life?

I’ll start us out. Most of us have a shell of mental and emotional protection around ourselves. We feel it helps us to be less vulnerable to hurt. It may be of conscious or unconscious origin, born of our need not to be victimized. It certainly does prevent others and life from interacting with us too closely.

It may show itself as an aloof or prickly exterior or as a chameleon-like front that allows us to blend into the background and evade notice. Others may or may not mentally register our armor. Sometimes they simply sense it’s best not to get to too near to us.

Our shell may be situational—only at work, only with strangers only with folks who identify as a certain sexual orientation. This partial armor is likely due to past experiences we don’t wish to risk repeating.

This type of barrier is different than healthy boundaries. Healthy boundaries assure we interact with others functionally in ways that are appropriate for all concerned. Armor simply limits our interactions—whether positive or negative—and dampens our ability to feel.

Because armor prevents our free interaction with life, it restricts our free interaction with life and limits our ability to receive. While it may potentially block the unwelcome, it also filters out the serendipitous. When we maintain a shell around ourselves, we throttle our capacity to manifest or accept gifts from creation and also circumscribes our capacity for effective communication. Armor isolates us from healthy interaction.

Today’s message asks me to explore when and how I might have established personal armor. I will want to review, so I understand how it limits me, my potential, and my ability to thrive. Gentle deconstruction of any unhealthy personal barriers will open me to receive and contribute to the full bounty of life.

How about you? Are you willing to remove your armor?