How to Alter Your Past, Present and Future with One Thing, Guaranteed!
The “One Thing” is Your Story.
We may not realize it, but in every moment we are story tellers. Story is how we interpret our experiences minute by minute. Stories are the meaning we use to make sense of our lives. We then organize our stories into themes and patterns to form our overall sense of identity - our points of pride and shame, our perceived strengths and weaknesses, our comparative worth. For better or worse, we tend to become so attached to our stories that we ignore or reject details that don’t fit into our narrative, and selectively seek and remember details that do, even the most unpleasant. (A version of The Law of Attraction. Like attracts like.)
But what if you don’t like your story? Or what if something bad happens that threatens the life you’ve known - a natural disaster, a job loss, a divorce, or your health? Does your story have to be a tragic one? Not at all. In fact, quite the opposite.
Think about it. AI could take the basic facts of your life, and generate thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of stories that would describe you as anything from a victim to a hero, and every story would be factually correct. Maybe we, then, are capable of telling a different story about our lives and about who we think we are. We don’t need to take on the role of the victim, or the person who lets people down, or the person who always fails, or the person who is not lovable enough to have a loving partner. It may even be time to swap out a role you really like - the star athlete, the most beautiful in the family, the entrepreneurial success. Life may suddenly say to you, “You’ve been there. You’ve done that. It is time to see yourself through a different lens.” Novel ways to experience yourself and the world offer an opportunity for a depth, complexity or satisfaction you haven’t yet known.
Already embedded in the human psyche is an innate desire for the hero/heroine journey, a story of redemption, triumph and purpose. Most action movies are a version of this one archetypal story. If your story does not feel like a hero/heroine journey, remember that a hero/heroine journey doesn’t happen without struggle, obstacles or mistakes. It happens because of them. The hero/heroine journey doesn’t begin until the protagonist lets go of her old story, and her journey doesn’t move forward if she doesn’t believe a different story trajectory is possible. In the process of letting go and allowing the new, she discovers her own power is greater than she ever knew. So to truly live your own hero/heroine story, to truly grow and expand, you, too, must be willing to put some space between you and your old story.
What will happen if you claim a new and more desirable story? Your life will change. Your past will feel different. You will begin to remember it differently. On some quantum level, it will actually be different, as you have brought healing and agency to it. You will feel more empowered and happy in the present moment. You will experience life in a far more empowered way that will allow you to notice and seize opportunities that will bring a different and more desirable future to you. In other words, when you change your story to a better one, you instantly change the past, the present and the future all at once. Isn’t that amazing?
How to put this into action in your life:
Claim a New Story for your life, a hero/heroine story. Some themes you might consider are survivor, pioneer, champion, change agent, healer, visionary, artist, explorer. Claim the gifts the struggles in your life have brought you. Own them with pride. In what way are you stronger, more resilient, more aware, and more able to accept and appreciate yourself ?
How would you retell the key happenings of your life from the perspective of being on your hero/heroine journey?
After you have claimed a new story, imagine that you can contact your younger, perhaps wounded or unappreciated, self. Tell your younger self what he or she longed to and needed to hear about himself/herself.
To Reinforce your New Story:
You can keep your New Story fed with a very powerful yet simple practice. Keep a gratitude journal. Write down one thing you are grateful for each day, using the assumption that all the forces of the universe are conspiring to bring you the exact experiences you are asking for or needing. It can be anything at all, even the most mundane or small. But it will train your brain to look for and attract those things that support the theme of your ongoing hero/heroine journey. As you connect with things you are grateful for, you are instructing the universe to find and bring you similar things in the future. By the way, this practice is most powerful when you have had a really bad day, so challenge yourself to be faithful to it especially when you feel down.
An Example from My Story:
During my routine wellness visit in May 2024, the nurse taking my pulse flashed a look of concern and quickly darted out of the room. When she returned, she dragged in an EKG machine. Within hours, I was receiving a pacemaker to help a heart that had been providing only 30% of the oxygen my body needed. Seven months later, while preparing for the holidays and the season’s first snow, I tripped over a stump, cracking my heel bone, requiring 12 weeks off that foot and perhaps several more months of rehab after. You may assume that 2024 has been a very bad year for me. But because my story is “The Universe always brings me exactly what I need,” instead, 2024 has been a year of exciting spiritual growth for me.
Instead of feeling powerless, these crises kicked me into gear. My heroine journey became a quest to answer two questions. In what way is the Universe trying to support me or provide me something I need or want? What unexpected gifts were/are in this situation for me, and how can I remain open enough to allow them to flow to and through me? These questions generate a sense of mental/spiritual/emotional agency at a time when physically I had/have lost quite a bit of it.
In the hospital I was immediately shown the stark contrast between the victimhood story, and my chosen story of spiritual growth and agency. My hospital roommate was a woman who appeared to be completely identified with the story of victimhood and fear. Despite the assessment of the medical staff, she kept insisting she did not belong in the hospital, so kept defying instructions by getting out of bed, setting off all kinds of alarms day and night, and fighting the staff on every little thing. I kept sending beams of love and compassion to her and to the nursing staff, who were clearly stressed and distressed by her. Despite her physical condition being far less serious than mine, clearly there was much more suffering in her half of the room.
I was determined to stay in my own story, and that required some concentration, earbuds and an iPad. I listened to soothing music, meditated and envisioned a positive outcome for my surgery. It felt very good to take my emotional and spiritual wellbeing into my own hands. An added benefit to entering that stillness was the awareness that the hospital bed was comfortable, the staff was attentive and excellent at their jobs. I had everything I needed in this now moment. I was more than okay. From this place of immense gratitude and ease, I was actually enjoying my hospital visit as if it were a visit to a spa - no demands on me and wonderful people caring for my every need. The food wasn’t great, but a quick phone call to my family could bring anything I could want in that regard. I was truly, completely blessed. I felt no fear or anxiety and was certain all would be well. The operation was a success and virtually pain-free. This intervention had saved my life and offered me a chance to reclaim my vitality - a full 70% of it!
Fast forward seven months and along came another opportunity to test that my Heroine’s Story is still holding up. It is! Despite not being able to walk, I am happy for each day, for every way I am mastering to adapt to limited mobility. It’s a new way to apply my skill of solving puzzles. I am doubling down on my spiritual practice, being more bold in claiming what I need, and as a result am feeling more in the flow of my purpose and writing than I have been for years. This time of extended convalescence is providing the golden opportunity to fast track my soul calling. And that is often how the Universe brings gifts, in the form of paradox. I would have missed it if I had been stuck in a victim story. The miracle of my body will automatically heal my foot eventually. But what I do with my heart and mind is up to me and only me.
I welcome your comments, stories and shares. Thank you so much! Laurie McCammon
You can find out more about the New Story, and about Enoughness at
https://www.facebook.com/LaurieCMcCammon?
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