Ghetto of the mind

Today while listening to NPR they had a piece on foreign youth in rough living conditions in Sweden. The journalist pointed out how he went through the same thing and that the cycle they lived in was not real. They were not forced to be criminals or forced to fail or forced to live in a ghetto. It was all in their head and in their mind. There were options available for help or people who would employ them and there were other choices they could make instead of choosing to waste life peddling drugs and pursuing crime. They believed they had no options and thus they were imprisoned in a ghetto of the mind.

I was thinking about how I have a similar thing in my life. I am not a failure or a recluse or an outcast or someone unlovable. But because of my childhood and how I have reacted to problems or painful situations with all the messages I receive and accept without challenging them I have it in my mind that I am a failure, a recluse, an outcast & unlovable. I realize I have accepted many untrue things and continue to live as they are true without challenging them even though deep down inside I do not believe them but do not really know how to live free from them. It is an odd thing to contemplate but I realize I have allowed myself to believe things that are not true and it has affected me. How many dreams I have given up on because I doubted myself when I should not have…a few. How many relationships have I walked away from because I could not see someone sincerely cared for me…a few. How many times have I not even attempted to tackle a challenge because I thought I would fail…a few.

As I question what is true and real I reflect on how to live with that truth. By questioning it and following those questions I end up pursuing my deepest desires. To get to those desires I realize I need to be bold and do things I have not done before. Not because I simply can but because there is no reason why I can not. There is no reason I will why, so why have I not tried pursuing those desires? This is what it means to live. This is what it means to be free from the limitations I impose upon myself in my own mind.