Impedimenta

to self-realization, improvisation and progress is what I am referring to here. Keeping out the simpler analogies like the fence, the boulder and the mountain, here are some of my categorizations of life-impediments (and all at the 'self' level) that we should learn to overcome. Some of them may be related and frequently

Imagine a mental construct such as a giant Cloche over an individual and you can get to understand the impact of an invisible but artificial ceiling of performance. Like the elephant that believes it cannot move the small log (chained to its leg) which was originally meant to restrain it when a calf, one builds such mental entrapments over the formative years and sticks with that belief to the detriment of one's progress. ‘I haven’t done this before’ is a statement coming out of people in such glass-ceilings. ‘Nobody does it this way’ is another such statement which translates to the ceiling: ‘I can’t do it’.

Observe our behavior and realize that we, in some situations, act or speak as if there is a deadly Sword over us; like Damocles’. Here we are fearful of the cutting pain of retribution if ‘inappropriate’. The fearful here has compromised his/her integrity in the past and not ready to own and settle it.

Some prisoners, in the past history, were restrained by the Ball & Chain. Well many of us are still prisoners and will never be truly free unless we do the simple (mental) act of letting go of the past. Settle your conflicts - internal & external, clear the air, throw out your garbage, acknowledge the right and unshackle the burdens you have always been carrying around … unnecessarily.

This is interesting that it could happen to whole communities :) nations even. The question to ask is ‘Am I in a Pit?’ Like frogs in a well, put in by somebody, the newborns of the older residents cannot image they are in a hole and therefore believes there is no world but this. A variant of the pit if the Cave; the difference being that latter is opted for. Isolation is safe as change is risky; therefore such inhabitants never ventured out like The Croods. The cave dwellers are escapist, they do not need the external hand for help out and may even sting the hand like a scorpion would. Actually being in such a construct is the so safe that is it one of the most dangerous: one would be safe from life and any improvement itself!

The most prevalent one of all: the illusion probably ALL of us live with but what most never realize is that one I call the (colored) Spectacles; the filter we apply on our sensory inputs, particularly on our vision and hearing. It is the input signal-distortion circuitry one has introduced by themselves; much like the Malayalam proverb of the bad-colored vision of the jaundiced.

OK, being able to identify and remove the spectacles is one achievement but it’s a tendency for bipolar disorder if one is able to see life as a coin: head or tail, right or wrong, good or evil, saved or infidel, truth or lie. Such dualists have difficulty accepting ‘shades’ of color; for them the OR operator functions more than the AND operator.

If one feels like in a Maze, then he/she is bored of following destiny’s path like cattle-path. It’s time to get into the driver’ seat take control of the steering of one’s destiny!

The Crown is like the Ball & Chain, a burden on one’s head either as expectations set by the environments or as an artifact of one’s past achievements (Bask and Waste off like the celebrities who did that one time hit) or simply because one has put him/herself on a high pedestal (The faster one goes high, the more deadly the fall)

Whirlpool is the mother of them all: the combination of all (or most) of the above especially with one being the cave. Being trapped into one of these powerful black holes is unfortunate, chances of succumbing to a fall is high. One would, at the minimum, need the experience of negotiating each of the above in order to effectively fight this monstrous-one out.