Our life experience is the manifestation of the stories we tell ourself.. negative, or postitive. When I say stories I mean literally the story we tell ourself of who and what we are, for example: I am Emily, I am fairly reserved, quiet, and like to think. This is a story, it may, or may not be true. I have realized that there are stories of ourself that we have ingrained into our psyche that are so not true, but since we have been telling them over and over to ourself, for most of our life, we have made them true, as if we must succumb to them (but we don't). It could be the aspect of yourself that you truly do not like, say for example you are shy, you have been telling yourself for your whole life you are shy, but in reality, maybe you are just sensitive to energy, maybe you don't need approval by being loud, but the way that society and your parents observed your way of being was "shyness," which then you took on that story, defined yourself as shy, and then think you have this burden of shyness for your whole life. I say no to that. No, we do not have ANY burdens. There is nothing about ourselves that we can't change, or as I like to say, rewrite.
When I tune in and find aspects (stories) of myself that I am annoyed with, that I wish I didn't have, that to me are a burden, instead of drowning in self pity, and hopelessness, I now look at it as a story that I can just rewrite.. rewire. We have the power to literally change our whole way of being just by re-writing the stories we tell ourself day to day. We are so not a victim to our lives. We are 100% able to cultivate any skills, qualities, and aspects that we desire. Our stories can empower, or disempower us. It is up to us to tell ourselves the stories that create the best possible version of us to offer to the world. It is our responsibility to offer our medicine (our gifts) to the world, and if we are carrying around stories that keep us small, that disempower us, that keep our gifts hidden, then they are UNTRUE, and can beautifully be re-written.
A crucial part of rewriting our story is to look deep within to see where this story was first created. A lot of the stories we tell ourself are from childhood. We are so vulnerable, and innocent when we are young. It is basically impossible to be in our world as it is, without picking up on some disempowering stories. It is no ones fault. There is no one to blame. Everyone is doing their best from where they are. Compassion, and especially forgiveness to ourselves, and others is key while we rewrite our story.
As we begin to tap into our stories, we may find some very surprising stories, and honestly, the stories will keep delayering and delayering. There are SO many we tell ourselves, each day. Like everything I write about on here, rewriting our story is a journey. It doesn't happen overnight, and really, it never stops. As we continue to delayer, we will always be confronted with some blocks of some extent or the other. It doesn't matter. If I can offer one piece of advice around the beautiful world of self growth.. it's to not get intimidated by "how far," we have to go. We are never anywhere, but we can do our best, to be our best, right here, right now.