A few years ago, I heard an interview of a man jailed for political activism. When questioned about how he survived years of imprisonment, he responded, “When I walked in the prison yard, I looked up at the clouds. I was still free to see the sky, free to breathe the air. I was never a prisoner, because no one can imprison your mind. I just had to change my perspective.”

These were life-altering words for me, a message that radically altered my understanding of self-imposed limitations. If a man walks a prison courtyard path trod into a rut by thousands of inmates before him, and can still lift his head and recognize that his spirit is free, surely I could find ways to untangle myself from old habits and assumptions that limit my own life experiences. Continue reading →