Do you live in a cage or a circle?

“If you look at the people in your circle and you don't get inspired, then you don't have a circle, you have a cage.” - Nipsey Hussle (activist, rapper, entrepreneur)

I discovered this quote today. It reminds me of "“Man is born free but everywhere is in chains" by French political philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

As I learn more and more about the power of mindset over our lives, I realize how we live in chains often not because of external forces, but internal ones. The book How to Find Freedom in an Unfree World by Harry Browne also makes me realize how if I feel like I'm being blocked, it's because of my own self-limiting beliefs. And the energy I put out attracts people with the same energy - if I am thinking negative thoughts, then I will attract them.

I want to live in a circle, not a cage. As we all do. Unwittingly, we build our own cages and lock our own shackles. With bravery - the bravery to see how we've constructed our own realities - we can liberate ourselves.