Our lives are stories we tell ourselves.
Nancy Maris
As human beings we are all storytellers. We weave the stories of our lives constantly through the narratives in our minds. When we meet someone new we present who we are by sharing stories of our life experiences. Within our inner space we constantly tell ourselves stories about our identity, I am this, I am that, etc. These stories are projected out into our reality and its how we create our external world. It is the stories we repeat in our minds that set our foundations and quite literally write our lives into being.
Life itself is the most wonderful fairytale of all.
Hans Christian Andersen
There is a huge amount of power in our stories. For better, or worse. It can be very easy to become attached to our stories as they have shaped who we are and how we are in the world. They anchor us into this reality. Often our self worth and personal power is trapped in past stories. We become fixed to certain “characters” that we play out in our lives and forget that at our core we are pure, infinite consciousness, which can experience itself in limitless ways.
Those who do not have power over the story that dominates their lives, the power to retell it, rethink it, deconstruct it, joke about it, and change it as times change, truly are powerless, because they cannot think new thoughts.
Salman Rushdie
To truly change and transform your life and to evolve into your highest potential you must take responsibility for your story and consciously change it. As a culture we are very good at writing ourselves into our life script as the victim or martyr, which causes us to feel powerless to change. What if, instead of playing those roles you could write yourself into your life as the hero or heroine?
Fun Fact: Did you know when you recall a memory from a past event, you aren’t actually remembering the event itself, but the last time you remembered it?
Crazy hey? This is why over time different memories can bend and change. Slight changes or embellishments to the past then often start feeling real. Lies embedded become truth. We warp the memories based on how we feel at the time. We romance past experiences, blocking out the bad. Alternatively we hang onto the difficult experiences like a badge of honour. We base what happened in the past as our potential for the future and block expansion.
After being on a truth-seeking path for over ten years now, I know my story. I have worked on it, pulled it apart, taken the gift and blessing from almost all of it. However, I realized while chatting to a good friend of mine the other day that I was stuck in one particular story (“I am going to stay single forever” was the tape stuck on repeat) as a way of sabotaging myself from creating the opposite to it in the present moment.
Upon realizing this I knew I needed to really consciously stop myself from keeping that old story playing in my mind by creating a ritual ceremony to release it and welcome in a different story.
Those times of depression tell you that it’s either time to get out of the story you’re in and move into a new story, or that you’re in the right story but there’s some piece of it you are not living out.
Carol S. Pearson
So I sat in meditation and felt into what I needed to do to symbolize the shift. The below ritual is what I was shown to do to change the story; I am delighted to share it with you now.
Change Your Story Ritual
1. Sit down with loose-leaf paper and take some time to reflect and write down the main stories you presently tell yourself about your life. Reflect on all areas of your life, what are the roles you play? Describe the character you play in detail. Pay particular attention to the negative/limiting stories that run through narrative.
2. Now reflect over what you have written. Can you identify where you are playing the role of victim or martyr? Where you might be putting yourself down and keeping yourself stuck in something that belongs to the past? What are the old stories that have really had their day that you don’t want to keep running into your future? Where are you limiting yourself from attracting what you desire?
Examples. “I have to stay in this job to pay the mortgage.”, “I am too old for adventure, I am trapped by responsibility”, “I am fat and unlovable”, “I am not smart, I didn’t get a university degree”, “I have missed the boat on changing careers, I should have done it when I was younger”, “I am dumb.” “I am not creative”, “I am bad with money”, “I am trapped by debt”, “I am always late to things”, “I have always struggled with my weight”, “I hate exercise”. Get the idea?
3. Either circle those old negative stories on the page, or write them down on a separate page. Take this time now to identify what stories you are ready to let go of.
4. Take the piece of paper with the old stories on it and BURN it. As you burn it you might like to state the following intention or intuitively speak your own.
“Fires of transformation please take these old stories and cleanse, clear and close them from my life. I am ready to let them go now; I thank them for the learning and growth and surrender them to the past. They no longer serve or belong to me in the present moment. I let these old stories go to create space for new stories to be explored. I ask for this transformation to take place in the highest and best way for me at this time and with ease and grace. So be it. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you.”
Then watch as your paper burns. Often you can tell how quickly or ready you are to release something based on how fast the flames eat up your paper!!
5. Now that you have let go of your old stories it’s important to take some time to write your NEW story. Reflect on who you want to be? What do you want to experience? How do you want to feel in your life? What character do you want to play? How can you re-write yourself as the Hero or Heroine in your life?You can capture your vision by writing down what your ideal day and week would look like. Doing this is like creating a written vision board. Describe your future story with lots of descriptive feeling words that really encapsulate how you would FEEL in your life as if you were living it right now. Don’t limit yourself. There is enormous power in this process as you are literally writing your future into being.
Keep the written record of this new story. You might like to place it somewhere special where you can read over it. The first time I did this process of writing my future self into being was while doing my reiki mastership journey. I found what I wrote the other day and was amazed to find that I am living EXACTLY everything I wrote down. My ideal day and week that I envisioned is identical to how I live my life now. Amazing.
What happens if you don’t take responsibility for your story? Well then, the story never changes. In fact, you end up just living your life based on repeating echo’s from the past. Aren’t you ready for something more? You hold the power to change your story.
I am a storyteller. The type that went from place to place, gathered people in the square and transported them, inspired them, woke them up, shook their insides around so that they could resettle in a new pattern, a new way of being. It is a tradition that believes that the story speaks to the soul, not the ego… to the heart, not the head. In today’s world, we yearn so to ’understand’, to conquer with our mind, but it is not in the mind that a mythic story dwells.
Donna Jacobs Sife
Sometimes it can be hard to shift the old stories and if you are still finding it difficult than I would love to help you. In my soul medicine healing sessions this is exactly the work I do. Support people to re-write their lives and change the stories that are keeping them stuck.
Resonate? Found this helpful? If you do the above ritual I would LOVE to hear about your experiences. Feel free to leave a comment below. x Sara