Are You Stuck In A Story

Are you stuck in a story?

Well, who isn’t? Sometimes we don’t care. If the story works well enough, let it be.

But what happens when the story isn’t working for us anymore? Then we have a choice. Rewrite the story completely, or do just enough to be more comfortable.

Sometimes we want to rewrite a story we have been living because we learn that the story we’ve been told, isn’t true and we are no longer comfortable living a lie.

And yet.

There is still that pesky problem of the way we think which can stop the whole rewrite process.

We have habits.

We can’t get away from habits. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, because habits can make life easier.

Always hang your keys on the hook by the door, and you’ll never have to search for keys again. A good habit. A useful habit.

Other habits don’t change our life too much and are not worth the effort of shifting.

But what about the ones that limit how well life works for us? The ones that keep us in a story without a good ending.

Why not shift that story, get out of those habits and instead make good, useful habits, and live in a story we love?

We know the reason, don’t we?

Shifting the story that we are living in involves many moving parts, and some of them don’t want to be moved. We have to shift the way we see things. Then we have to choose to act on that new knowledge. Not always easy.

To shift a story, or move a habit, we have to be willing to leave the story we know and move to the one we don’t know as well.

What will happen? We don’t know.

That means that it often feels more comfortable to be taking care of problems we have taken care of before, than shift to a new set of circumstances with new problems.

In a new story, many questions will need an answer. How will you behave? What will be expected of you?

What about the people who live in the story you want to shift? Will they change with you? Will they be happy that you moved to a new story? What if they don’t want to come on this new bus to a new destination with you? What then?

It takes courage and faith to shift any story. But, I can promise you that there are always people who are reaching out a hand to help. They are already on the bus traveling to where you want to go.

Then there is the other side of the rewrite.

What about people in our lives who want to rewrite their story for the better. Will we revise ours to move along with them?

We celebrate other people who shift their story, the ones that take risks, change their lives. But what if someone in our own life wants to climb out of the lobster pot, write a new story, find the inner desires of their heart and live it. Are we the ones that support it, or try to keep them in the story that works for us.

What about supporting ourselves?

Do we support our personal rewrites, the ones that will change our lives? Do we support and encourage the parts of ourselves that have been emotionally arrested grow up and thrive?

I know it’s hard. It’s so much more comfortable to tell the same bedtime story over and over and over again until we know it by heart and never have to worry about the ending.

To get out of stasis of a story takes effort. Not muscle effort. Mental and emotional effort. We have to take the time to listen within and act on what we hear. In the end, every single person in our life benefits, whether they accept it or not.

If you have the courage to shift stories, ask for help, as you do the work. Beat resistance. Leap over the bar. Celebrate the moments of discombobulation. It’s a sign that you are moving forward.

Once you start the rewrite, you’ll find that the universe will move in your favor, and the community of people all over the world who shift stories every day will support and salute you!

And in the end, it will be worth it.

No one is required to live in a story that doesn’t work for them. We are the writers and designers of our lives. Let’s make it a good one.