The Danger of a Single Story

What does it mean to have a single story about someone? About yourself? If you took an hour to just write who you are, what would you say? Not your name and stats but what makes up you? The kind of person you see you as, your ideal’s and how you measure up to them. Your personality. Your struggles and conquerings. It’s incredibly insightful. Are you smart, dumb, afraid, confident? Connected, frazzled, detached, overwhelmed? Who are you? Or rather, what story do you tell yourself about yourself? So often we don’t want to look at ourselves. Our brains are brilliant at avoiding pain and peering into the darkness seems scary. It’s an old survival thing. So we resist. What if instead of resistance you could meet yourself with compassion and just look at yourself objectively with no judgment. Just see where you’re at. See a full and beautiful picture, with landscapes that go up and down, beautiful vistas, and barren plains. The Taoists see each experience in life as a great teacher- something to be profoundly grateful for- not because everything is rainbows and unicorns but because of the lessons and wisdom to be found therein. Often self-evaluation comes with such high doses of hostility and censure. I can’t believe I act like that. I hate that about me. I never get it right Hard to see ourselves clearly that way and therefore we can’t know where to begin the process of change! Or maybe all that needs to change is how we perceive it! We write about an experience but we don’t focus on the facts of the experience. We interpret what it means about who we are! We assign and attach all sorts of meaning and judgement. But what if we didn’t? What if there were different ways to write a story…YOUR story. And once you see that as a possibility, a light comes on. Just because the story you have always read to yourself about yourself keeps ending the same way, and you come to the same conclusion about what that must MEAN about you- that you’re afraid, ashamed, never going to change, fill in the blank….IT DOESN’T MEAN IT HAS TO CONTINUE THAT WAY! If you stop seeing it that way it will in fact BE DIFFERENT. You won’t just tell the story of you as a character with a fixed role to play in the drama of your life. You’ll become the author of YOUR LIFE and write it as you choose. And even if some of the facts of your life remain the same, you being different because you see it differently will make all the difference!But today, no changing. Just noticing. Enjoy this brilliant woman’s TED talk. and should you like, take some quiet time, with a yummy beverage of choice and write who you think you are. What is your story of YOU? Raw an unedited. And don’t judge it. Or do.

:). But just see what comes up. I promise it will be enlightening!