Time to Change Your Story

Everyone has a story. What’s your story?

Is your story:

• I’m treated unfairly.
• I’m not good enough.
• I’m unwanted and unloveable.
• Bad things happen to me.
• I never have enough
• I can’t do it.

Or is your story:

• I am tapped in and turned on!
• I have everything I need within me.
• I attract just the right people into my life.
• I’m lucky! Good things always happen to me.
• I’m an abundance magne
• I can do it.

Maybe you don’t say those exact words when you tell your story. Instead, you talk about how you went bankrupt, had a string of lousy relationships or always end up having bad things happen to you. Or you explain how you managed to purchase a Fiat for 1/3 of the price, met your soulmate, or wrote five best-selling books!

Your Stories Become Your Beliefs

The stories you tell reflect your thoughts and emotions about an event. And when you tell your story over and over again, you begin to believe it as truth. Your experience and the thoughts and emotions it generated become ingrained in your being and turn into beliefs. Those beliefs can prove expansive or limiting. In either case, they shape your perspective of the world.

Your stories shape your experiences as well. Negative stories reap negative experiences because that’s what you’ve conditioned yourself to see—and you attract more of them with this focus. On the other hand, positive stories reap positive experiences.

Change Your Stories

If the stories you tell don’t serve or support you, it’s time to change them. When you do so, you’ll immediately achieve different results—and you’ll see the world through new eyes.

I’ve been thinking a lot about this for the last few weeks. I’m working on a new proposal for a book about sacred stories. These are the ones we choose to tell after we learn the lessons in the stories we’ve habitually told.

Like you, I have my stories. For example, my father died when I was seven, and from that point forward I chose to tell the story that Men leave and don’t support me. When I was in high school, my mother told me that only a good writer could earn a living as a novelist. After that, I chose to tell the story of I am not a good enough writer to succeed.

When I took the time to “read” these stories on a deeper level, I understood them in a different way. I found the lessons in the experiences, and I then changed my stories. I wrote sacred stories—ones tied into the truth of who I am and who I want to become. I changed my stories to Men come into my life to stay and support me in numerous ways and I am an excellent writer who gets paid well for my words.

Discovery Your Stories

Sometimes your stories are elusive, but it is possible to uncover them. Here are two ways you can begin to find your stories:

1. Create a list of all the significant events in your life. Then ask yourself what story you’ve been telling yourself ever since.
2. Ask people who know you what stories you tell over and over again. What belief do you express in the retelling?

Once you find your stories, read into them. Study them. Learn from them. Then write a sacred story that reflects your new beliefs, your new way of being in the world, and the new experiences you desire.

What’s your story?

Photo courtesy of Ivelin