I was talking to one of my closest, and longest lasting friends the other day. I’ve lost track, but I think I’ve known Dan for over 25 years. He started talking about the stories that we tell others about our lives and how – essentially – those become the stories we are actually telling ourselves about our lives.
So guess what we create?
Unsurprisingly, this conversation led me to give serious thought about the stories that I tell others about my life and therefore what I’m affirming my life to be like. Just like the subject line of this message to you, someone has been telling stories about me and that someone is me!
But do I like those stories? How many of those stories make me happy and how many bring me anxiety or concern? What’s my happy to anxious ratio here? So, as I am prone to do, I started making lists. I made a list of the happy stories I tell and then a list of the more anxious or fearful stories I tell.
How am I doing? Well, let’s just say I could do better.
I am quick to point out to my students and people who attend my events that I am not perfect. Am I generally a happy person? Yes. Yes, I am. But do I have things that worry me or make me feel anxious?
Yes, I most certainly do.
Dan is no dummy. He wasn’t just sharing his own awareness of the stories he hear’s him spread about himself. As always, he was listening closely to my stories and planting the seed that maybe I should put some stories to rest in favor of happier tales that bring in to my awareness joy instead of fear.
In my book, How to Be Your Own Genie, I suggest making lists of the things that we say to ourselves that are negative or not helpful and then writing what I call “an antidote.” For example, if someone says something like “I’m so clumsy!” then that should be followed with an antidote to that idea that reads something like “I move with the grace of the Divine in all things that I do.”
I hope you will consider joining me in really paying attention to the stories you tell about yourself. Are you creating a beautiful fairytale come true? Or a scary campfire story?
Angel blessings,
~Radleigh
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