The Power Of Stories

Life can be hard. I guess that’s why we like stories so much. Stories to lift our spirits and keep us moving. Stories to keep things light when the darkness creeps in. Stories that shake us awake to the beauty and magic right in front of us, whisk us away from the meanness our minds can create, and gently guide us back home to our loving hearts, where we belong.

Stories are not just for children; they are for all of us. As adults, we forget that we are telling ourselves stories every day. Many of them are unhelpful and completely divorced from reality. At least, this is what I’ve done more times than I care to remember. I suppose it’s a natural consequence when your head is disconnected from your heart.

It’s time to write new stories. The old ones aren’t working anymore. They are breaking down.

Let’s take a look at some…

Macro-level stories like infinite growth, infinite energy, and fiat currency (in its current form) are crumbling, and we need to be aware of the probability that significant change is coming whether we like it or not. If not for us, it is coming for our children or theirs.

Micro-level, identity-based stories like “I’m not enough”,  or “it’s all THEIR fault and I’m powerless to do anything about it” also don’t help much. We all have a myriad of stories we tell ourselves that inform how we live on a daily basis. Most of them are unconscious. Whatever the story, they often boil down to conclusions we have made about ourselves that don’t help anyone. Conclusions mean the story is over—“THE END.” So as long as we’re here, conclusions are something best discarded, especially when it comes to the ones that limit our potential.

Rest assured—“everything will be all right in the end because if it’s not, it’s not yet “THE END!”

The good news is when conclusions are dropped a new story can be told and we get to write it. First individually, then collectively. Favourable outcomes are not going to magically materialise unless we increase our awareness of who we are and what we’re capable of. We will keep recreating the same old shit if we are overly focused on the crumbling stories or the latest juicy scandal.

The problem is, the problems of the world have a magnetic draw about them. It seems we love a bit of catastrophising to add some drama to what can seem a mundane reality to the logic of a hardened mind. I hold my hands up, “guilty as charged”! But, what if shit really hits the fan, and we find ourselves in one of the horror situations most of us only see on the news or social media. Then we’ll see what we’re made of, so we’d better be ready, right?

When we’ve constantly got our heads plugged into external narratives that bombard us daily, what space have we for using our superpower of creativity to imagine a “NEW EARTH”? But surely that is what we must do. It’s easy to go on fault-finding missions and continue blaming “THEY”. But let me tell you a little something about, those bastards “THEY”!

“THEY” are living in old, outdated stories too. “THEY” believe they are separate and that the only way to survive is an ever-tightening grip of control. Ultimately “THEY” don’t really exist as separate from you or me, but instead of going down that rabbit hole, for now, can we at least stop pretending that “THEY” have any more of a right to create the future than we do? Then maybe we can focus on creating what we want instead of doing nothing or reinforcing the vision of “THEY”, whatever it may be. 

So what do we do? 

Find a “THEY” or BE the “THEY” whose vision resonates with your heart and that holds the well-being of all as the highest priority.

Then, when enough people are on board, new stories will materialise into reality. Good plan, right? When enough people hold a story in their consciousness for long enough and take action, it comes to fruition; so says the famous law of attraction at least. Really I’ve no idea, but it sounds like a desirable option.

The problem is we’re scattered all over the place. We are not yet able to tap into, imagine, or hold the stories that can get us out of the mess we’re in as a species. This is what I think we need, and please note, as somewhat of a storyteller, I’m just making shit up as I go.

Unplug for long enough to reconnect to your heart. The spiritual heart. The heart of being. The still small voice. The Higher Self. God. Your Inner Captain. Who really cares what our minds label it. There is an intelligence within us all that can be accessed but first, we need to set the stage for it to arise and makes itself known. Yoga made this happen for me. It gave me a glimpse into what’s possible.

This is the first hurdle. Probably the biggest one. Life can be tragic when there is no magic, but “Abracadabra” isn’t going to make that magic happen here. Foundations need to be laid and work done. Then if we’re lucky, magic will walk right in the front door when we least expect it.

Unplugging doesn’t mean disconnecting from reality and escaping to the mountains. That’s not possible. It means turning inward and often the first step for that to happen is that we stop force-feeding ourselves information in an attempt to avoid the silence.

Silence is the foundation. Silence is the work. It is out of the silence that magic arises. It means carving out time to practice another way of being, or you could say Being itself. This means sitting with yourself and watching your breath. Noticing whatever discomfort arises, then healing that. Be it a stiff back, an unruly mind or a painful emotion from a time gone by. This goes on and on until silence is your friend. And then it continues to go on.

Once we can hear our true selves again, we can ask our hearts the deeper questions. Then listen to the answers and take action on them. That is all we need to do. It’s the simplest and the hardest thing I’ve ever done, and by no means am I done. Discernment is something I continue to sharpen. Some days it’s sharp, other days, I’m lost in a washing machine of doubt, but there is no going back to pretending I ever knew anything. Maybe that’s the hardest part-realising, over and over again, that I know very little.

The ego is always the last to know… which is funny because ego’s usually like to think they’ve got it all figured out to mask the insecurities they bury deep inside.

Now the connection has been cultivated a new story can be born. When the story comes from the heart, it has a certain ring to it. That’s how you know it’s true. It’s likely, too, that since it comes from a place deeper and more vast than our minds can imagine, it comes to more people than just you. “No man is an island init”. Then if we’ve got the chops for it, we endeavour to make this new story a reality by seeking out the “others”—the ways and means to make something out of nothing. 

That’s all I’ve got for today; I’m off to take my own advice and listen for what new story is wanting to be born next…