Last update: January 07, 2016
The thought of escape often becomes for many a strategy to feel safe elsewhere: the desire to get away from what hurts, frightens us or suffocates us is a recurring feeling in many. However, if you have also experienced it, you will know very well that escaping is never the solution.
Escape is never the answer, because running away means wanting to get away from someone or something, but the source of our torment will always follow us, wherever we go. Rather than running away from a fact that has happened, one has to overcome it. If it is a person, we will need to learn that our existence depends only on ourselves.
Recognizing that you want to escape reveals courage
The one who is afraid cannot be called a coward, since recognizing one's fears means wanting to face them: the fears, the dizzying changes, the disappointments, all this makes us believe that we are cowardly, insecure and weak. But recognizing that you want to escape is the first step in being able to move forward.
"Do not call the fearful coward,
but hug him and tell him that
unlike what is believed,
monsters only exist until you give them a name:
only the brave do it. "
-Elvira Tailor-
You who have sometimes felt the desire to leave and disappear from the world, therefore, are courageous people. You have taken the first step in addressing the problem, and you will soon find that putting it aside, ignoring it, and running away will only postpone the moment when you have to deal with what is causing you suffering.
The moment you realize that you want to leave something behind and flee elsewhere, you realize that what you want to escape from is not the place where you are, but the memories related to that place. However, you will find that the memories are always with you, ready to permeate the walls of any city you go to. You can't run away from yourself, and when you run away from someone, it's only because you are one in that relationship.
Escape from the problem is to embark on a race that cannot be won
Perhaps you believe that postponing facing a problem will be useful for a change of scenery and perspective; in that case, however, it is no longer an escape, but a period of reflection aimed at survival: we must go back to the place from which we escaped and conclude what we have left pending.
Escaping from an external situation is usually never really necessary: ​​we will be able to solve the problem without major complications. What is really difficult is to escape from the ghosts we have inside, those who will not abandon us until the moment we decide to face them and give them a name.
Often we do not run away to get away, but to endure, to gain the time necessary to become stronger and more mature with respect to the fear and pain that afflict us.
The emotional shock that escape can suppose
When escape serves to endure, you never go back to being what you were before. In other words, it is the emotions that we try to define ourselves, and the moments when these emotions are at their peak are to be able to test us. Running away from difficult feelings and being able to get better has, in addition to its causes, also its consequences.
“When the storm is over, you probably won't even know how you got through it and made it out alive. In fact, you won't even be sure if it's really over. But there is no doubt about one point. And it is that you, having come out of that wind, will not be the same one who entered it. "
-Haruki Murakami-
After the blizzard, we will have changed, we will have learned and experienced. The answer will not have been the escape, but the way we dealt with that urge to escape, because you never really run away. Perhaps a new environment will help us to recover our happiness, but changing places in itself does not lead to anything.
What really matters is to try hard to get out of the situation we find ourselves in, despite the fact that it involves the biggest emotional shock of our life. We must face pain and seek happiness among the things that surround us. There will always be something or someone ready to help us endure difficulties, who will not let us escape by pushing us, instead, to fight with all our strength.
