I've written before about the way we believe ourselves as if in prison. We stand in the corner of our imagined cell and face the wall and believe we cannot escape. I was reminded the other day of a wonderful poem by Rumi expressing this idea --
I have lived on the lip of insanity
Wanting to know reasons
Knocking on a door, it opens
I have been knocking from the inside!
Beliefnet has a wonderful Rumi page -- take a look.