Brain Freeze

From the Golden Tarot, the Eight of Swords; from the Yantra Deck, "Freedom:"

          Life can feel wintry and desolate when I feel overwhelmed by circumstances, just as I'm sure this lady is experiencing. When I feel beaten down with limited options, its easy to think that no one else has to deal with such pain and mental anguish. As soon as I've adopted such a mindset, the world does feel like a very cold place. My mind becomes so rigid in its beliefs, that I might as well be wearing a blindfold and have my hands tied. One of the truths I've learned about being in such a dark, desolate place is that isolation doesn't help. I need the warmth and support of other people. They don't have to magically fix anything; just having someone to listen and bounce ideas off of can help my brain thaw out. I'll eventually realize I have more alternatives than I previously thought.
          How did my mind become so restricted, my bowl of possibilities shrunk down to the size of a thimble? I'm sure some of those limitations came from what I was taught growing up - a load of "shoulds" I adopted. Perhaps the greatest contractions have come from the hard knocks of life. After I've accumulated a collection of bumps and bruises, it's easy to make assumptions and project that everything will be exactly like the past. Nothing will change; I should expect more of the same. The Freedom Yantra reminds me that even when I'm between a rock and a hard place, I don't have to let my mind work against me. There's no need to waste time screaming that life is unfair and shouldn't be this way. That's akin to stabbing myself in the heart when I already have an arrow in my chest. Instead, I can focus on how to best deal with that arrow.