When the Cage Is Imaginary 🕊️

"The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven." — John Milton

"Freedom begins the moment you realize you were never trapped."

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There was a stretch in my twenties where I blamed everything. My parents. The system. Past trauma. My lack of credentials. My “bad luck.”

Every setback got pinned to something external. I carried that victim badge like a medal. Heavy. Tarnished. Worn proudly.

Then one night I cracked open Man’s Search for Meaning. Viktor Frankl. Holocaust survivor. Psychiatrist. Philosopher of the soul.

He wrote about men finding purpose inside concentration camps. About how meaning wasn’t handed to you. It had to be wrestled from the chaos. Internal. Fierce. Your last possession when everything else was stripped away.

I dropped the book. Sat there. Staring. Ashamed.

If he could hold that truth inside a literal cage… why was I still blaming everyone else while free?

It was never the apartment. Never the bills. Not even my past.

It was me.

The bars weren’t real. The lock was imaginary. The trap was built in my own head.

And the second I saw that, I mean really saw it, I felt something strange. A crack in the concrete. A breeze. The beginning of an exit.

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Here’s your work today. Ask yourself:

“Where in my life do I say I’m stuck… but really, I’m scared to choose?”

Write it down. Don’t edit. Don’t justify. Just name it. Is it your job? Your marriage? A version of yourself you’ve outgrown?

Then ask the harder one:

“If the cage door swung open, would I walk through it?”

Freedom starts when you realize the door’s been open the whole time.

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"The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven." — John Milton

The battlefield’s not always external. Often, it’s between your ears.

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What’s a cage you once thought was unbreakable… but now see as self-imposed? Or maybe you’re in one right now, and just now realizing it might not even have a lock.

I’d love to hear your story. No performance. No pretending.

Just truth, raw and messy.

Hit the button below. Let’s pull this illusion apart… together.

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We inherit invisible rules. We obey without question.

Until something inside us, some flicker of rebellion or self-respect, asks, “Wait… who made this rule?”

That’s where freedom begins.

And that’s where you begin… again.

Keep walking toward what’s real. I’m right there with you.

— Ryan Puusaari

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