In one way or another, we’re all a survivor of what has already happened to us. It might have been something terrible, or it might have been something wonderful, but each of us has a past, and in one way or another, we bear the secrets and the scars.
No matter what has happened in the days that have gone before, each of us carries that knowledge with us.
And sometimes, it carries us right on back to where we were.
In this time of the year, it’s very human to start making plans and changes for the new year ahead. Whether it’s to consume less, or save more; be kinder, or fight back, we’re all a product of our past until we’ve done the work to let it go.
Even then, there are still some patterns hardwired into our nervous systems that seem determined to thwart our best intentions, and hold us back from moving forward.
Sometimes the past is a refuge, and sometimes it’s an anchor.
But the truth is, a lot of the time, the past is nothing more than a set of stories that we told ourselves, and that we cling to in order to make sense of the universe and our place in it. Like all stories, there’s an event, a storyteller, and a meaning.
Sometimes even the event isn’t exactly how it happened, just our recollection of the essential details that we need to try and find some order in that which does not, and maybe never will, make sense.
Which is where the storyteller comes in.
Because unless you are aware of it, the storyteller is that voice inside of you that has absorbed all the traumas, and listened to all the lies.
The storyteller’s goal is to create some kind of meaning from what happened, so that you can use it to understand the universe going forwards, but it does so through the lens of your fears and your misunderstandings.
Which means the interpretations that it tells you are often those that will hurt and hold you back.
So in order to break through, and move forwards, you’re going to have to find a way to understand those stories, and tease out the truth from within them. Maybe the meanings that you’ve taken from your past served you then, but are not helpful going forwards on your pathway to peace.
Perhaps you need to understand the past in a different way now, and to do that, you’re going to have to let go of your stories.
Because the stories you’ve created around the past were made up to support the way you see the universe, and letting go of them is never easy. No one wants to have their view of the universe changed, because it’s unsettling and painful.
It leaves you wondering about everything, until you are ready to take the path of uncertainty and possibility over certainty and fear.
And mark my words…. unless you are ready for it, uncertainty is scary.
Until it isn’t. Because there’s an incredible sense of freedom and potential in uncertainty. Suddenly, that which you knew was impossible might not be, and that which you feared would never come to pass just might show up along your way.
Once you release the grip of the past, the future becomes a land of possibility.
And it will draw you forwards, into the future, and into peace.
— Dr. Alan Barnes
@maddrbmusings