Do you agree that each and every human is trapped in a different way?

We’re only as trapped as we allow ourselves to be. Sometimes you have to say screw it and try something else.

No, I don’t agree. We all have circumstances in life, but we can choose not to regard them or respond to them as a trap.

It’s a very dim view of life & not one I share, not in the least.

Totally agree with @marinelife.
Whatever that comes in our way, we can choose to be affected by them or just letting them go. It’s all in our heads.

@marinelife but some circumstances affect a person directly even if he/she does not want to be affected.

“Affected by” is not the same as trapped. It’s an issue of semantics. Some people may, indeed, feel “trapped” by circumstances, but everyone? No. Not if they don’t think so. This is a subjective designation.

No, I don’t agree. Each person is free to the extent they overcome their own personal difficulties, but they are not trapped.

I think we each face challenges – some more difficult ones than others – but we are not all trapped by them.

Don’t forget people who are trapped by wealth and by the fear that the mobs from whom they’ve stolen their wealth will be by one fine night to take it back.

@ZEPHYRA You seem to be in a dark place. I think you could benefit from reading Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning. He found reason for living in a Nazi concentration camp.

Some of the things that he said that have been most meaningful for me are:

“The one thing you can’t take away from me is the way I choose to respond to what you do to me. The last of one’s freedoms is to choose one’s attitude in any given circumstance.”
― Viktor E. Frankl

“When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.”
― Viktor E. Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning

Finally, a Zen hug for you.

@marinelife thank you for a lovely answer.

Yes, but I don’t think you go far enough, @ZEPHYRA.

I think a lot of people are equivalently “trapped” in a habit of non-smoking, in participating in bouts of appropriate indulgence of alcohol, great marriages, high paying jobs that bring a sense of personal satisfaction, excellent tastes in music and food and culture. Some people are trapped as being excellent care givers, being an inspiration to those around them, the list goes on and on and on. Some people can’t even go 3 days without hitting the gym and eating something healthy!

I don’t think anyone is trapped in only one thing, whether positive or negative. It’s a mixed bag of traps. Everyone has their unique trap-cocktail.

I see it more as being dropped in a violent river when you’re born. Basically you do your best in there to survive, and although there is current, there are ways to get where you want. Swim like a pro, struggle for air, but the journey goes on.
Cling desperately to logs and try not to smash into rocks, swim against the current and go up waterfalls LIKE A MAN, swim out to a lake, pond or the ocean.
Some people get tied down with treasure chests, or stray shopping carts, refuse to let go, and drown. Others spend their life hoping some dude in a kayak will come to rescue them, others claim that there are fish hooks to get caught on, and that the truth is out there.
Maybe everyone strives to make it to shore, but truth is you’ll only make it there once you die. The journey is everything, and since in my analogy life is a river, you’re never really stuck, just depends how you see shit and go about doing shit. You can’t get stuck because it moves, but since it’s about survival, holding for dear life to what one may perceive as salvation or solution is near inevitable, I guess.

@Symbeline My – you can write!

@Symbeline ”just depends how you see shit and go about doing shit.”

So true. It seems a positive mental attitude is the number one goal to true happiness.
It never ceases to amaze (amuse) me how few people ever learn this basic reality.

And the rest of what you said…OMG! It’s like you live your life swimming in torrential oceans hanging on at times for dear life to the reef and then discovering treasures with which to bring back.
If you can go there in your head then you can never be truly trapped.

Yeah. My version has a lot of pirates. :)

Yes, we are all trapped by circumstance; some of our own choosing, some not. Life, or the quality of your life, is how you deal with the entrapment once you realize it.