Discover The Power In YOUR Story

Have you ever felt like you were on a gerbil wheel treading ever faster and yet seeming to go nowhere?

I have. Just recently I was getting frustrated and depressed because a problem I was trying to solve kept coming up again and again. I couldn’t seem to make any progress in resolving it. The reason: I was doing the same old thing and yet expecting a different result.

This problem reflected a pattern I had been repeating all my life. It was part of my story. So I decided to look at the issue from a different angle. I put it into the context of my whole life and had a huge “aha”.

All our problems and challenges are really opportunities if we just know how to look at them. Indeed, our issues are the hidden power in our story.

Our Story

We’re all searching either consciously or unconsciously to give psychological and sacred meaning to our lives. Our lives are our story—all the threads that woven together in patterns that make us unique. It’s our:

Actions and reactions
Thoughts
Intentions
Emotions
Beliefs—ours, our parents and our culture
Heart dreams and souls mission

The power in our story is like two sides of a coin; one side we lose energy or power, the other we gain.

Power Drains

Whenever we lose energy, we perceive our story in a negative way and let our power drain away. Here are some power drains in which I have indulged in the past.

Constantly going over the same negative experience in my head
Regretting what I have said
Feeling guilty
Wishing my experiences were different
Using the words “should” and “if only”
Indulging in negative emotions particularly the two big killers fear and doubt. I often hid or suppressed a part of myself afraid of what might happen when I opened the lid of my internal trash can
Feeling nobody cares and I’m all alone in the world
Not taking full responsibility for my life by judging, complaining or criticizing
Lacking in clarity. Many times I didn’t know what to do so I grasped at straws. What did “they” say I should do—whoever “they” were?

Power Surges

So how do we tap into the positive power of our story? Empowering change can only happen with acceptance—by embracing ourselves totally right now!

Understanding the core beliefs that drive us. Core beliefs are deeply held and are usually unconscious.
Every pain, illness and negative experience in our story has beneath it a suppressed emotion caused by a negative thought or belief. Allowing suppressed emotions to surface, and dealing with the underlying cause is the first step to transformation.
Recognize that you are unique. Your experiences, capacities and understanding are unique. Your challenge is to discover those strategies, modalities and tools that will empower you to be fulfilled.
Stop scurrying around looking for the elusive quick fix—that one pill, one course, one therapist, one food that will fix all your problems. If there really was a quick fix, would we have so many overweight, depressed people in our society?
No matter what path you choose, patience and perseverance are the only ways to find success. That doesn’t mean we sit around like a blob on a log, but it does mean that after we have done everything we know to do, we must surrender our actions to the Divine for further manifestation.
Each moment make conscious choices. Contrary to popular belief our power is in our choices not our genes.
Open our hearts. We are a mind driven society. What we need to become is feeling hearts connected to our soul and our minds. Is it any wonder that heart disease is the number one killer today?

By opening our hearts and loving ourselves we discover the true power in our story and only in that love will we find joy, peace of mind and happiness.

Reframing our story with an open heart is an integral part of our journey to wholeness. So I invite you to take the next step. Visit my Blog Archives August 2010 and read my article Journey to Wholeness. And then let’s continue the dialogue. I’d be delighted to hear your insights.

Written by Joyce Friesen