I have never heard of a human tradition that did not include story telling. It is one of the things which sets us apart from the rest of the animal kingdom. We pass along knowledge from one generation to the next often through art or traditions like religion.
There are the stories of good and the stories of bad because again it is in our nature to learn and teach others right from wrong. It is a fundamental knowledge we must all acquire regardless of what we may choose to do with our knowledge. Today I thought I would write on why we need to understand how stories can play out in our individual lives.
When we were all children we were impressioned by important people around us. This is mainly our family but depending on our living conditions could have included cousins, aunts, uncles, parents, best friends and others. Hopefully most of the stories we were told were encouraging and uplifting as they set the stage of our self-esteem and passion for achieving. Sadly, for many, they are not always so and it is those stories which can continue to shadow us until we re-write them or leave them at the side of the road and continue our journey without them. What stories do you have in your personal library now that need culling?
My own story included an impression that cleanliness is next to godliness. Somehow, perhaps because of sexual frustration, those pilgrims were obsessed with cleaning. If everything were clean outside then perhaps they would be “clean” inside as well. I do not know. But I do know that a lot of angst and stress was caused by the concept that somehow I needed to keep my room in order and clean to be a “good boy”. As an adult it became a sign of when I was stressed. Sometimes it played out only in my closet other times into other areas of my home but always it seemed overwhelming for me.
Today I am happy to report that I can live in a messy space and it does not bother me. I can come home from vacation and not unpack the suitcase for 3 or 4 days. I am able to choose what works best for me. At least I thought it did not until a friend of mine wanted to drop something off to me and I realized that I was not comfortable for his partner to see my space at that moment. And so I smiled to myself as I realized that while the story may still have some influence in my life, it in fact does not control me as I was able to say “actually my self-esteem is not feeling up to it”. And that is all we really ever want to do, tell our truth the way it is and be accepted for who we truly are without repercussions.
The lesson for me was that we cannot ever erase the stories of our pasts but we can re-write them or put them in their place so that we continue to choose a life we love to live.
