There is a cartoon of a prisoner in a cell; hands on the bars, rattling his cage, frantically, furiously, attempting to break free of his confinement, seemingly determined to free himself…BUT on both sides of him, to his left and to his right, there are no bars. It is open. There are ways out. But the “prisoner” is so focused on the one “right” way out, so convinced of his dilemma that he does not see his alternatives.

That is so many of us: stuck in our emotional jails, thinking ourselves trapped…and yet blind to solutions clearly obvious if we were but willing to, open to, seeing them.

What self-imposed prison cells have you talked/believed yourself into? What ways out exist that you do not want to see? And why don’t you?

Closing Quotes:

“Sometimes your belief system is really your fears attached to rules.” – Shannon L. Alder

“Self-hatred is self-imprisonment. Self-forgiveness is self-liberation. You have the right to suppress yourself, oppress yourself and depress yourself. You have the right to impress yourself too!” –  Israelmore Ayivor

“Implicit in the therapeutic contract is the patient’s willingness to tolerate discomfort, because some discomfort is unavoidable for the process to be effective. ” – Lori Gottlieb

“Comfort…was the key ingredient to making the prisoner crave the prison.” – Ashim Shanker, Only the Deplorable

As always, I share what I most want and need to learn. – Nathan S. Collier