Our worst enemy is often ourselves.
We ruminate. We catastrophise. We dramatise.
We let our negative thoughts spiral out of control.
They encircle us. They burden us.
We become trapped. Fixated. Stuck.

We build a cage that surrounds.
Bars, thick, forged of steel, closing in.
Placed by us, piece by piece.
We lock ourselves up. We lose the key.
We forget the key exists, that we still hold it. Nearby. Within.
Time passes. We no longer remember how we got here.

We are not the only ones trapped within our cage.
Representations of others are also held captive here.
We perceive others fixed in their form.
They do not grow in our representations of them, just as we do not grow in our representation of self.
The clarity we perceive, clouded. Obstructed.

It is easier this way, to set aside our key, rather than to set ourselves free.
We have an established momentum. Years passed make it so.
The path that we traverse, over and over, becomes our routine.
Its form circular by rumination, wedged narrow between ridges of rigidity, or laden sorrow with blades of negativity.

Freeing our mind requires us to break free from our pattern.
It requires us to build our courage. To perceive more holistically.
As we release ourselves from our negative thoughts, clouds of despair shall disperse.
The key, lost, we must once again find.

To find the lost key. To place it into the lock that seals. To turn it. To open those gates that imprison our mind. To release those thoughts, those feelings, those ways of seeing. To be different from what we were yesterday. To alter our trajectory of tomorrow. All this requires effort.
Perseverance. Courage. Time.

We may wait for someone else to free us, but it is we who must free ourselves.
Such a task is not for another.
Sure, they can help, but in the end, the key must be found from within.
There, we placed it. There, we lost it. There, we must find it.
There, is never far.
It is up to us to regain our freedom.

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