Making Up Our Stories

Today is Thursday, December 5, 2013. 

Our minds are great at making up stories.  The trouble is that half the time they are not even true, yet we try and live our lives by them. 

The other day I wrote about being stuck in your story.  The idea was that our beliefs about ourselves create stories that provide a context for the events of our lives.  Our stories reside in our subconscious minds, along with other deeply-held beliefs.  In order to avoid a state of cognitive dissonance, our subconscious minds direct us to do whatever is necessary to ensure that our beliefs come true.  

How do our stories get started, anyway?  Our minds make them up!  Something happens and we make up a story about it.  Whatever we tell ourselves, the key is that it seems true at the time, whether or not it really is, and it is generally something that either makes us "look good" or it somehow justifies the actions that we took.  This self-storytelling happens when a powerful event takes place in our lives, and because the event is so powerful, the strong emotions that we feel tend to cement the story in our subconscious minds.  Occasionally the emotion is a positive one, and so the story is also positive, as long as it is rooted in reality.  Most of the time, though, the emotion is a negative one - embarrassment, deep grief, intense mental anguish, anger that turns into bitterness, worry that turns into anxiety, and so forth.  These emotions strengthen the negative stories that get filed in the subconscious, and these stories about ourselves stay with us from lifetime to lifetime. 

Why do some children seem inordinately fearful?  It's very likely because they have carried a story forward into this lifetime that says, "There is danger all around me."  If the child is afraid of heights or of the water, it may be a sign that he or she died from a fall or from drowning in a past life. The extreme fear felt in the last moments of life were carried forward into this life, in order to be processed and dealt with.

How does this work?  It's all about energy.  Everything is energy, and everything is vibrating at some frequency or other.  Our bodies vibrate at a particular frequency, and we as Soul also vibrate at a particular frequency.  That's our energy signature, also known as our state of consciousness.  Everything that happens to us affects our vibration; in particular, strong emotions lower our vibration, while strong positive emotions raise it.  Our vibration is the "point of contact" with the rest of the universe, and the means by which we attract people and events into our lives.

Think of the most traumatic memories of your current lifetime.  Remember that something that is traumatic to you may not seem so bad to someone else, but we're talking about you, now.  Whatever event you are thinking of, it was traumatic to you.  

Did you almost get run over by a car?  Did your house burn down?  Maybe you tried out for a sports team and didn't make the cut.  Maybe you tried to get into a certain university or you tried to get a certain job and failed.  Lots of people have had the experience of being dumped in a relationship, even left right at the altar.  Are you one of those?  Maybe you were so deeply embarrassed by something that happened that you had to move to another town.  Or as a child, perhaps you were cruelly teased by classmates for one reason or another.  Maybe you tried to have children and couldn't, or you were were raped and not allowed to have an abortion.  Perhaps you married the love of your life, only to realize later that he or she was an alcoholic, or abusive, or both.  Maybe you were abused by a parent or other adult in your family when you were a child.  Perhaps you got into a dangerous situation as a child: did you get locked in a dark closet or play in an abandoned refrigerator and get locked in?  Maybe you got fired from a job under unfavorable circumstances, or you were involved in a horrendous car accident.  Perhaps you were caught in the middle of a traumatic event such as an earthquake, a bank robbery, a hostage situation, or active battle conditions during your term of military service.  Maybe you survived a hurricane or tornado, a shooting event such as Sandy Hook or Columbine, or a plane crash.  

What have you come to believe about yourself as a result of these experiences?  How does this belief help you or hold you back?  Just about everybody has at least one limiting belief, or "story" about themselves.  If you can, find that story and change it. The mind created it, and the mind can change it.

And in the future, be constantly aware of your mind's propensity for creating stories.  Be as proactive as you can in creating positive, uplifting stories. :-)