Every mystic, every counselor, every fairy tale says the same thing in their own language, the new can’t come until we let go of the old. Everyone says it because it’s the truth, it’s just the way things work. Letting go of the old creates the possibility of seeing differently, ourselves, our dreams, and our potential and this creates the space for something new to flourish. But often instead of seeing things differently we get stuck in our story. We can’t see past the old, the old tapes, the old habits, old responses, and old feelings. These are the same stories we’ve been telling about ourselves for years, decades, or perhaps as long as we can remember.
If we’re going to have a shot at writing our new story we have to be willing to release the old stories that no longer work for us. The problem with the old story is that it feels natural and comfortable, we are so used to living with it, it feels like second nature, it feels like our truth. This makes it difficult to step outside the storyline that plays in our heads and see it for what it is, a lie that holds us back from seeing and being all of who we truly are.
We try to placate ourselves by saying, it not so bad, it’s the way it’s always been, or everyone else does the same thing. But there is only one litmus test for the truth of the story we are telling ourselves and that’s how it makes us feel. Are we alive, engaged, empowered, and joyful? If not it might be time to rethink things.
Rooting out the old story can pose any number of obstacles but it doesn’t take much searching to see how a particular person or situation makes us feel and this is as good as any place to start. How they make us feel tells us all we need to know. If we’re feeling great until we get to work, there’s a starting point, a place to take a second look. Maybe it’s the other way around, we’re having a great day until we get home. Like I said, it doesn’t take much to start noticing where the story begins to unravel, following up and making changes is an entirely different story. It can be terrifying when we are confronted with the limits we place on ourselves and that can stop us cold.
These uncomfortable or scary places tell us where the story can begin to evolve into something completely different, into something that could change how we live our lives. It may not happen all at once but things will start to shift when we begin to pay attention to the stories that underpin our lives and then begin to do something different. It doesn’t have to be monumental, we can start small, begin with just one thing.
This is how we get unstuck from our story and from all the things that keep us caged. Pick a storyline, pick what pulls at you to think differently, to dream bigger, or be bolder. We always have a choice about the story we are living.
Look inside and find where the old story ends and the new one begins.
kb
