At what point does the story you tell about your past become the crutch you use to keep from moving? At what point do you begin to use your story, and the telling of it, to remind yourself why you are unhappy, stuck and challenged? At what point does this story, which is most often never true, need to be set down, let go and abandoned by the side of the road?
Did you know as we TELL stories we receive the chemical hit in our brains that occurred when it actually happened? You have 14 seconds after an event to react and respond and from then on you are acting upon the memory. Then as the need for the chemical gets more demanding, we then begin to add detail, colour and action to the event in order to continue to get the needed chemical thrill.
I practice holy witness …. I allow people to tell me their story and then I ask them to let it go. Feel the pain and the sense of injustice and then know you have come through. It is then time to begin living life again. Over the past, in working with the aging, I have learned how it is in our best interest if we want sympathy, compassion and attention we must continue to tell our story. We get the “oh no!”s and the “Wow”s and the “I can’t imagine”s and it feeds our chemical brain’s addiction. When we stop telling the old story and tell a new one of present day, exciting times and how we are coming through the pain our lives are enriched.
So I ask, at what point do you begin to let go of the old story? The point is now. The time has come.
Can I be your holy witness? Can you tell it one more time and then decide to let it go? It is up to you! When will you truly bloom?
#breakingstibah 