The Power of the Story

Are you aware of the stories you tell yourself day-to-day and minute-to-minute?  It’s not your fault if you are not aware–nor are you bad/wrong/unenlightened–if you haven’t noticed it yet. The fact remains, most of the people who come to me for help with their lives  are living inside a story they are telling themselves about their life. They are mired in old habits and old thinking, trying to get a new life by doing the same things over and over again. I like to use the image of a movie screen to help them see their own story.

Try This: Imagine you are sitting in an empty movie theater about to start a new movie. The screen is blank. The lights go down and picture begin filling the screen–not one large picture–but many smaller pictures tiled across the screen like a mosaic. The pictures are stories from your life, some from the past, some from the present and some from dreams and wishes you hope for, but haven’t fulfilled yet.  The screen becomes crowded with stories until there is no more room on the screen–no more open space. Where are you in this scene? Are you in the stories? No!  You are sitting in your chair in the theater–watching. You are the Observer. As the Observer, you have the quality of Awareness as you watch your own stories on the screen. You have the ability to observe your actions in the story as well as the actions of the people with whom you interact.

As you sit in this quiet seat in this empty movie theater, you may notice yourself relaxing out of the stories being projected on the screen and into the quiet center of your own awareness. This is who you are! This is life outside the story.

The story can be so powerful. It can be so seductive. It can pull you back into it in the blink of an eye. You can forget that you are the awareness and get caught up in the energy of the story. The story isn’t bad–necessarily–it’s just not always the truest life you can be living. In my experience, the story is rarely kind. It is is rarely helpful. It is usually based on old thinking and out-dated experiences. It is based on ideas that may have been helpful at one time, but may also have out-lived their usefulness. 

Remember that energy follows attention. If your energy is out in the story, the story will proliferate. It will continue to hold you captive in old patterns and beliefs. If your attention is centered in the peaceful seat of your own Awareness, you have the energy of the Universe at your disposal. 

Where would you rather sit? In the quiet peaceful center of your own awareness?? –or in the tired old story of your past?

From the center of my own quiet awareness, I send my love and joy out to you. You are a radiant being of light–and telling yourself any else is just the old story. Become the author of your own awareness. Breathe into the quiet peace of your own center. Let your stories go quiet; let your movie screen go blank. What is waiting inside you to come into the world? Ride the slipstream of your own light and shine!

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Dr. Laurel Ross

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