Get off the telephone

To some, these four words would be painful but for me they are a liberation from emotional bondage. There are two sources of emotional bondage, ourselves and others. We cannot break free from another, however, until we are first freed from ourselves.
The relationship between the victim of emotional abuse and the victimiser is a circular relationship but interrupting the destructive circle by confronting ourselves first is the necessary sequence for liberation. Unlike physical bondage, psychological bondage is kept in place by the imprisoned.
A shocking fact, perhaps, but a fact, nonetheless. To be psychologically oppressed we must participate in the oppression and oppress ourselves. To be psychologically liberated we must choose integrity and liberate ourselves.
Once our integrity has been compromised by participating in our own abuse, we are in jeopardy. The protection of truth, fairness, caring and respect that integrity provides is no longer available to us. With my self-confidence eroded and my self-doubt and self-loathing at an all time high, I was in a very weakened position. Yet, it is only from this weakened position that I could begin my liberation journey.
The words "Get off the telephone" were a gift of freedom. But I do not presume that this is the end. Every day new choices must be made. When the familiar pattern of self-loathing, self-abuse, and self-doubt overwhelm the commitment to integrity and hope, I must pick myself up, search to discover what occurred to knock me down emotionally, and then caringly and firmly help myself up.
The path out of emotional bondage is not a straight line. It is a curved path of spirals and turns, of tears and struggle, of set-backs and discouragement. The grip of oppression is seductively inviting because of its familiarity and deception.

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.