The Past - You Can Change Your Story

Where is the past? Some people will say that the past is ‘behind them’. If you look ‘behind them’ you will not see the past. Others will point to their head and say the past is ‘in there, in my mind’. If you were to surgically open their head you would not ...Where is the past? Some people will say that the past is ‘behind them’. If you look ‘behind them’ you will not see the past. Others will point to their head and say the past is ‘in there, in my mind’. If you were to surgically open their head you would not see the past. So where is it? Where is the past?

The past exists only in the stories that you tell yourself and others about it. These stories are based on your perceptions, your interpretations of the past. Your stories are just that, stories. They are not reality.

You’ve heard that if six different people see the same traffic accidents there will be six different stories about how the accident happened depending upon their point of view. It’s the same thing in life. The stories you tell about your experiences are merely what you think you saw or heard from your point of view. And there may be five other points of view!

If you’re a parent you will remember the many times your child completely misinterpreted something you said, or something they saw. Guess what you did as a kid! You misinterpreted a lot of what you heard and saw. And you created a story about it. It became your story, your truth. And it probably isn’t true at all! And yet you live your life as if it was.

Even if some horrible thing really did happened to you in the past what is keeping this horrible experience within you and part of your life today is the story you keep telling about it.

Your past is a baggage you can carry however you want to carry it. There could have been many incidents in your past that come to your mind whenever you reflect. But how these past events charter course of your present or your future depends on your interpretation of the past.

As a child a parent might have said to you “You’re a bad girl!” because you left your room a mess. From that moment on, the story you tell yourself is “I’m bad” or “I don’t deserve”. That’s your story and you’re sticking to it! You approach everything in your life from a position of “I’m bad, I don’t deserve”.

A teacher may have reprimanded you in front of the entire class for answering a question wrong or not doing your homework. And you’re story became “I’m not smart enough”. And now you live your life, make decisions, based on “I’m not smart enough.” Even if you do accomplish greatness you still carry the story of “It’s only a matter of time before they find out I’m really not smart enough.” And you self-sabotage to prove that you’re “really not smart enough”. The ego, the Inner Critic, the voice of self-doubt and fear loves to be right. It’s sticking to its story!

As you go through life with these stories of the past dominating your conversations you are literally living in your past. If you are living in your past you are not in the present moment. If you are not in the present moment you literally miss much of your life! It’s like the long drive home from work. Your mind was on thoughts of the events of the day and before you knew it you arrived home, hardly remembering the journey, the traffic, the stoplight and the turn you took to get to your driveway. All of your thoughts were on the events of was now the past and you missed the experience of the drive home.

You cannot create the future you desire if you are living in your past. The only time you can deliberately create the experiences you wish to have is in the present moment. The only experience you can create from the past is more of the past! Even if you don’t like the stories of the past, you will be subconsciously creating more of those same kinds of experiences. What you think about you bring about. It’s as simple as that.

And here’s another little secret…

You CAN change your past!

How?

By changing your story.

Your story changes from “I’m not smart enough” to “The teacher took the time to make sure I learned the right answer. She knew I was smart enough to learn the lesson so she didn’t give up on me.” Empowered believing that you are, indeed, smart enough propels you forward as you go through life as a person who knows he is smart enough to be, do and have what is wanted in life!

Different stories about the past create different experiences today and in the future. What’s your story? What is your life experience? Change your story to change your life!