Coping Mechanisms & Belief Systems – Or Why the Caged Bird Sings

There once was a bird that was tied with a chain. It could fly where it wished, from past to future as its binds possessed great length and when they were first placed on she fought with all her strength. What once was the embodiment of freedom was now forced to live within limits and initially she went and pecked with great vengeance and furious anger at the source of her discontent which was the peg that attached the chain which was fastened around her leg. After a while she gave up because it seemed useless, the obstacle simply wouldn’t shift so she tried something different instead and flew with all her might only to find herself snapped back to the present with a sore ankle.

Nursing her health she sits close to the object which prevents her natural expression of Self, falls into a deep state of depression and laments “I was given these gifts and yet someone conspires to limit their expression. Qui bono? Who benefits?” she wonders as she gradually edges away from the peg and starts daydreaming about days of freedom in which she spreads her wings and pushes it to the limit, filled with the thrill of existence as she flits from one adventure to the next. “The whole world is my home, wherever I go there I met myself in essence, present and correct”.

The sadness within is now filled to the brim and we, on the outside, notice the bird no longer flies but just sits thanks to the chain around its leg. The truth of reality would loosen her grip on the tiny slice of sanity she has left and thus survival mechanisms kick in and she imagines future journeys of places she’d like to see and thus wiles away her existence of misery thinking about who she’d like to be as she nurtures the sacred flame that feeds the fires of her dreams. If you could project into these landscapes and communicate telepathically she’d deny fervently that she wasn’t free. “Look, I’m flying high. Happy as can be! Why would you say such foul things to me?” “But you’re not, not at all. How can I show thee? Look why not open your eyes and look at the reality I see of a sad little bird with a chain tied underneath” “SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!” she’d screech because there is, buried deep beneath the layers of self deceit a part of her that knows this is the real deal as it fuelled her trips in the land of imagination instead to offset the misery of being grounded when all she wanted was to spread her wings.

In such a situation how could you convince this poor wretched creature to witness the veracity of your statement and grasp the true nature of her predicament? Lets say you came up and removed the chain from her leg it wouldn’t mean a thing until she opened her eyes and left the illusions in the her head to once again feel the sensation of freedom as intended. Thing is she’d got so comfortable in this rut she once hated with a vengeance as she built a home made of ignorance to keep her safe from realizing what happened.

Ask yourself, what would you do? You by now must have a clue of how the bird would feel inside and due to the lies it tells itself that freedom now feels like a threat because to admit it was missing would be tantamount to killing the limited concept she built to hide the true nature of what happened and that is even more painful than reliving it again. “All those years wasted, whats the point?” she may think as she shifts to the land of freedom and those strains of depression buried within burst to the surface and threaten to drag her down again.

Coping mechanisms and belief systems are a strange thing because they use limited information to do what they think is best and ensure something approximating mental health is available for the one who finds themselves in a bind like this. To them anyone attempting to tear down their scaffolding is seen as a threat as they identify with it, the tale they tell themselves in their head to make up for the lack of freedom due to the chain placed around their neck. The outsider, no matter how well intentioned, will be misinterpreted as his actions are filtered through her stunted awareness that was only birthed to protect what remained of herself after falling victim to anothers whim.

We, as observers, can see the man who wishes to help does so from pure intent and places a lot of effort into this by stepping into her realm and asking her to open her eyes, see the present moment and notice that he’s removed the chain that was placed back when and she is, in effect, free a bird to do what she does best. He offers her the solution she has been craving and yet, from her perspective, it seems like a pill laced with bitterness as she also projects the initial anger and resentment she felt at the one who chained her leg onto him as he, once again, threatens the bliss that she built and initially felt. We see clearly how it was initially real them switched to false, all in her head, as she was anywhere but the present moment and thus even though she’d been set free that aspect of reality was out of bounds her to achieve purely due to her self limiting beliefs and story she tells herself in her head about those events way back when she tries hard to forget. Sure there is a nagging emptiness in her chest, a sensation that it shouldn’t be like this but a dream of flight will do when you can’t have the real thing. See the hard part of a dream, or nightmare even, is when you’re caught in it its entirely real and feasible. Its only when you rise from the depths and regain your awareness of the present moment that it shifts and you see the illusion for what it is but our sad little dove exists in a perpetual state of somnolence. Technically further from living and closer to death when it comes to her potential and how much is expressed. No wonder she retreated to safety when faced with such a predicament.

The saddest thing about this tale is she symbolizes 81% of the planet at this very moment and all I wish to do is to remove the chain of limiting beliefs from your leg but as you’ve witnessed that in itself is quite a challenge when the one in chains goes out of their way to deny this and takes my intent as a threat to all they hold dear as it exists as salve that prevents the realization of the truth of their predicament.

Till we meet again