Healing Stories

The master storyteller is the mind. It has stories about everything that happens to us, everyone we meet, and even ourselves. It takes the tiniest little thing and creates a story that links to the stories it has been telling since we were children. Even when there is no fact at all, such as when we hear something wrong or don’t see something correctly, it can spin the most engaging yarn!

Stories can be emotionally neutral, but most often they create either positive or negative emotions, since our emotions respond to the mind’s stories much the same as they would to watching a movie, reading a book, or listening to someone else tell a story. Emotionally negative stories are wounding stories while emotionally positive ones are healing. Our lives and the lives of those around us are greatly affected by the stories that our minds tell.

Wounding stories always create a wound for ourselves – or at least keep open a wound that was created by our childhood stories. For example, we may have told the story as a child that our parents did not love us because they did not act loving (story #1). That is a story, not a fact, because we have no way of knowing what our parents felt regardless of what they did. How does that story make us feel? Probably we would feel sad, abandoned, angry, hurt, or not good enough (because if we were good enough they would have treated us differently – story #2). So now in adult life we keep meeting people who abandon or hurt us (variation of story #1) or we feel not good enough (variation of story #2). When we meet someone and they seem to reject us, these are the stories that are told. We might also feel angry that people don’t treat us better (variation of story #1). That keeps the wound open and in addition directs negative energy toward that unknowing person who has no idea what our mind’s stories are.

Healing stories happen when we redirect the mind to stories that are either emotionally neutral or make us feel good. We can do this with old stories from our childhood as well as current stories. For example, we could tell the story that our parents did not know how to show us their love in ways that we could receive it and that allowed us to learn more about loving ourselves; OR – we chose our parents to play the bad guys in our play so we would learn how to help other children in similar situations; OR – we came to heal the family line that had been unable to love for so long and it is a miracle that we are loving adults. If you feel these stories you will see that there is a shift in feeling with the new story and that is healing.

Each day our minds are busy creating stories. Be aware of the stories that are playing and shift the ones that wound to healing stories. If we could all heal our stories, there would be a spontaneous shift into a new world. Shall we bring this new world into being, one story at a time?

Acceptance, Appreciation, and Agape

Acceptance, Appreciation, and Agape

Acceptance, as a state of mind, is emotionally neutral. What is simply is. What has been has been. What will be will be. When we are caught up with fighting with what is, has been, or will be because we have judged it as bad, we don’t like it, or it is not what we wanted or expected, acceptance is a welcome refuge. Many people think that acceptance is giving up or it means that things will always be that way. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Acceptance frees things to change, while resistance holds them in place – what you resist will persist!

We can never move on to appreciation for all that shows up in our lives until we have attained the neutral state of acceptance. Appreciation begins to weave the web of mystery around the events of our lives. Curiosity is a nice way to move from acceptance to appreciation. Asking, “So now that I can accept what is, what is it doing in my life? Why did it show up for me? What is its message?” As we begin to question the purpose of what is (or has been or will be), the energy begins to move again and there is an excitement generated for the journey. There is also an assumption that whatever shows up has a purpose and, in a general sense, the purpose is to increase our awareness and consciousness. That is something to appreciate – that the universe is always helping us grow past our stuck places!

Once we can appreciate what shows up in our lives, we become aware of the love that permeates everything. It is the glue that holds the universe together and we are surrounded by love coming from everything. Our hearts and souls then open to feel that love in return for everything. Agape is the love we have for not just the things that are comfortable but especially for the uncomfortable things that cast us out of the closed “safe” places that our consciousness tends to hold onto, moving us into a more expanded awareness.

Before we reach the state of acceptance, our life force energy is funding what we do not want and keeping us stuck. Acceptance frees the energy to move in a new direction. As we move from acceptance to appreciation, the energy begins to fund our conscious evolution. When we reach agape, true healing is possible.