The Perpetual Leash

Metaphorical Narrative

Imagine a leash that isn’t tied to your neck but to your dignity. Every step you take, the rope tugs — not enough to strangle, just enough to remind you: your freedom is conditional. The leash whispers that people know better, that they own the happiness you’re chasing. And so you drag, heavy and tired, wondering if rest is ever allowed.

Core Insight

The leash is not real. It’s a contract stitched into memory: “others hold your worth.” Depression comes not from lack, but from this invisible tug that says you’ll never make it on your own. Freedom doesn’t require breaking out — it requires cutting the rope that was never deserved.

Saturday Experiment

1. Write one sentence that declares: “My worth is not borrowed.”
2. Say it out loud, once in your own voice, once in a playful mocking voice — like snapping the leash.
3. When you feel that tug of obligation today, imagine scissors cutting straight through it.

Sunday Reflection

• What would their life look like without that leash tied on?
• How would they act differently if worth and happiness were already theirs?
• What becomes possible when obligation no longer owns them?