Bonsai??

I got the idea for using bonsai trees from the movie "Ninja Assassin." In the movie the main character is being trained to become a ninja. They are taught under harsh conditions and punished severely. The students cut somewhere on their body every time they fail at something. One scene the students are tending to bonsai trees and every tree has a wiring around it, controlling how the tree will grow. The wires on the bonsai trees represents the way the ninja clan's control over the students and their strong hand forming them to be killing machines. One female student cuts the wires on a bonsai tree foreshadowing her cutting the wires restricting her own freedom to grow and live as she chooses.

In the same way I can parallel this to my own life. I allow the wires of expectation and judgement to come around my life and mold me into a person I believe they want me to be. I do things or say things because I believe people would want me to say it and I want them to like me. I need their approval for the things I do and say. I allow their words and their opinions about myself and the world around me pull and tug at my branches causing me to live a life that is not mine, a life that is unnatural. When I succumb to their suppression I become less authentic, I become less of the person I want to be.