The Story You Tell Yourself
One of the dangers we face in the many difficult moments of our lives is not always the challenge itself. It’s often the story we tell ourselves about it. Life has a very interesting way of presenting seasons that don’t roll out quite the way we want them to or according to our plans. Our expectations constantly shift. Progress is a slow-moving train and unfolds way slower than we imagine. Sometimes doors remain closed longer than we would hope. But none of these things should surprise us, right? They aren’t completely unique. It’s just a part of the whole human existence we all participate in. Yet, somewhere along the way, we start to make very subtle exchanges. We take the description of the circumstances we face and replace it with how we define and describe ourselves.
How many times have you said or at least thought, “I’m falling behind.,” “Maybe I’m not good enough.,” or “This is just who I am now.”? What started as a temporary moment quickly, but quietly, becomes our permanent identity. Fortunately, mindful awareness can be a critical interruption to that process.
Awareness reminds us that there is a difference between facing discouragement and actually becoming a discouraged person. There is a difference between walking through an uncertainty and believe that your life has or is becoming uncertain. These are significant distinctions because the stories we keep on repeat eventually become the filtered lenses we look through to see ourselves and the things around us.
I talk about mindfulness so much because to me, it is an invitation to return to what is actually true. It is not the story that years of emotional turmoil, fear, confusion, or sadness has written for us and about us. We are not the versions we think of ourselves because we had 1 or 100 bad chapter(s) within our lives. When we learn to live this moment, in this breath with honest recognition, all those circumstances that may have previously influenced us have lost the power it had to be the final authority of what defines us.
Kind Rebirths is and has never been about leaving, escaping, or avoiding the realities of life. It has always been about reflecting and learning to see it clearly enough to no longer get confused or mistaken for the truth about who we are and what we can become. Sometimes the kindest thing awareness can do for us is to remind us (sometimes harshly) that we are far more than a bad chapter of our lives.
Stay mindful…
Rebirth.
