Reply To: The last ten years of contamination and checking ocd. And where I seem to be now
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Hi everyone… Today, Whilst out shopping, it was a metal outside seat in town… Do you remember going to the local playpark when you were a child? Swings, slides, and roundabouts… The red rocking horse… Did you also have sandwiches, or a picnic at the park? With Mum and Dad. Some will remember picnic baskets… Long rides on pedal cycles, and on a hot day stopping at a shop for a bottle of milk or fizzy drinks… Especially after fixing a tyre puncture with those weird puncture repair kits in tins. Our hands would never have been clean as we munched on potato crisps with the little blue salt bags in… We’ve survived, haven’t we? We sure have! And at the seaside, riding a bicycle along the promenade… Sitting on those benches, where we find that nowadays, the seagulls prefer ‘cooked’ fish and chips (!). Did Enid Blyton’s famous five ever wash their hands? If they did it wasn’t mentioned, and they got up to all sorts of scrapes… We’d crawl about on the ground, wearing out the knees in our trousers, and toes of our shoes… Then it was straight to school dinners, no time to wash hands first. We used metal coins to buy ice cream from a vending van, running outside as soon as we heard the music in the street. And we have probably become stronger for the experience. Sausage rolls from a well known bakery… No water, no antibac, no nothing… And, with the knowledge I gained through practicing CBT, I know that neither I, nor anyone else will be ill as a result. So, no need to feel concerned about anyone else, due to my actions today. If they were to become ill overnight, it would not be down to me, but someone else they came into contact with. My research bears this out. I’m free… Free! 🙂 🙂 🙂
Tomorrow I go to the gym… I only wipe down equipment, ‘After’ I have used it, unless I see the person before me on that particular equipment not doing so. I think I’m getting stronger… I’m not able to use the pool, they have builders in for a short time, but I never worry about the lockers… If they look reasonably clean, that is good enough for me, I’m no grubbier than anyone else… It is an acceptable risk that we all take, every day of our lives. We actually breathe ‘dirty’ air. And there is no way our water is totally sterile by the time we get to drink it.
Have you ever played a guitar? They won’t be perfectly clean… Yet a group of us might pass them from person to person… The old school ‘Recorder’ , That squealed if we blew it too hard. We’d share those as well…
Drums and tambourines… Impossible to clean… And we are still here to tell the tale…
So today, I have tried to not give any time to worrying… Instead, I concentrate on happy stuff.
As a person of faith, I now choose to operate the J.O.Y. Principle…
Jesus first, then Ourselves, and only then, Yes, everyone else. That way prevents burnout, when we are trying to be nice to everyone else, in a vain attempt to get them to be nice to us… Try it, It works for anyone.
Tomorrow I’m gonna have a go at making stickers for my keyboard flight case…
God bless you for reading.
Wannabe