What I Wish Every Client Could See Sooner

The cage was never locked.

There’s a story I once heard that has never left me.

A tiger is pacing in a cage.
Back and forth, back and forth.
It’s worn down the floor beneath its feet.
It looks tired, restless, agitated.
You can feel its hunger for freedom, its desperation to get out.

But what it doesn’t see is this:
The cage door is wide open.
It’s been open the whole time—
only not in the direction the animal has been looking.
The opening is behind it.

And because it keeps searching, pushing, and straining
in the other direction, it never finds the exit that’s already there.

I think a lot of us live like that.

We’re in emotional pain.
We feel stuck.
We analyze and brood, ruminate and loop—
worrying about the future and the past,
trying to think our way out, or wanting to fix what’s “broken.”

But what if we’re simply facing the wrong way?
What if mental freedom isn’t something we have to work toward or figure out—
but something we simply notice?

Wh...