IS: We will begin as One. Much can be done by you and your insight! You are here to experience the life you have, and enjoy it. “Why?” You might say, “Does so much of life exist that is not presently enjoyable?”

Precisely because you make it so. 

You make it so, by telling a story about it. That is the root of all suffering – a bad story.

TC: So life is about telling a better story? or not telling a story at all?

IS: Life is about neither, but could be either! Life is about whatever you want it to be. We were just jumping ahead to the presumption that most of you, on your planet, have about life. This is primarily that, “life is hard. Life is about suffering.” That, “there is no progress without struggle,” and the like.

These things are all, of course, true – but only from one perspective. Life affords the opportunity to hold constantly new perspectives and thus, create new intentions and
stories about it. This is how creation works; by telling one story at a time.

 

TC: So if, say, I get punched in the face. Telling a better story about it would make the pain go away?

 

IS: Well, from one perspective, yes it would. It would make you feel better about the experience of it first. Though, it would not likely take the physical pain you feel right away.

If, however, you could convince yourself whole-heartedly that the punch that hit you was not actually a truthful event, the pain you feel would not be in existence – at least, not in your experience of it.

Some of the recent Mind-Body research in your world might be more confirmative on your behalf than our words. But to your point – we will address our answer.

Changing the story is a way of changing your perspective on an “event” that happened in the vein of your life experience. If you change the story that you tell about the event, you will change the feeling that the event has in your memory.

If you continue down this pathway, you will slowly “adapt” the experience of the memory to a different feeling version of the event – the one that the new story points to. This is the basis for changing the event itself – as no event exists objectively. All records of experience are recorded within your personal experience, and so, by changing the feeling of this experience in memory, you change the actual event for yourself.

 

TC: So, by changing the story that we tell about an event in our lives, we change or create a different reality of the event?

 

IS: Yes! Well, in a certain way. In actual terms, all potentials of the event already exist. You are simply shifting into a different reality that has already been created about the event. You aren’t actually creating the event itself – life does all the “creating” that you could ever need. You are simply modifying your experience of reality and the events within it.

 

TC: I see. So how does one modify a story?

 

IS: This is a very good question! The key thing to realize is that the stories that you have about yourselves and your life, are always being modified. 

When you have a new life experience, you shift into different states of being. These experiences allow you to tap into different potentials of future and past events.

A practical way to think about this might be – the options of food that you think of eating for dinner when you are in a good mood, versus when you are in a bad mood. They are different realities that you are open to, based upon the state of mind that you are in within that moment. So your memories are constantly being modified – your stories, constantly being changed. 

To do this in a more conscious way, however, there are several good methods to approach the topic.

One way is to notice how things are actually different than you believe them to be in your story. If your story is, for example, that “bad men are always finding you,” in the context of a romantic relationship, you could practice noticing every moment that is not indicative of this “truth.” 

Do bad men find you when you are eating breakfast? How about when you are driving to work? What about when you are calling your sister on the phone? Are they banging on your door when you’re asleep at night? (Our condolences if they are…)

The key with this strategy is to notice how other things are also true for you in your experience. It is also important not to discount the truth of your past. Perhaps bad men did seek you out before, perhaps quite often. 

But shifting your focus to notice that this isn’t happening “always,” allows for the space to find a different narrative for these events. This will, eventually, alter the course of your experience. And it will start doing so, right now. 

 

TC: That sounds fairly simple. But is something like that really effective enough to merit a change in someone’s life experience? What would you say, to someone who has a propensity for some kind of self-destructive pattern? For example, an addiction?

 

IS: We would say, first and foremost, not to be a “dick” to yourself, in addiction. This means, that if you try something to “fix” a “flaw” within yourself and it doesn’t work right away, be easy. 

From our perspective, most of the things you humans try to do to “fix” your “flaws” end unsuccessfully because they are mounted and created in a sea of shame that you have for yourselves. 

Before we would suggest anything to try, to someone who has, as you say, an addiction, we would say, “be nice to yourself.” 

Then, we might reference the fact, that anyone who “possesses” an addiction, is extremely well trained in focusing. This means that they know how to deviate their attention from their present experience with such acuity, that they have been able to do things (in present) that they would later deem shameful.

This is an extraordinarily power trait to possess. We would congratulate them on this trait, and encourage them to use to to their advantage.

The “bind” of the mind when it comes to addiction always relies upon an external means of distraction from the experience. This is important, because the opposite of “binding” and “tightness” or “rigidity” is softness, malleability, and acceptance. If these people can learn to be softer with themselves around their experiences that they don’t like, and muster their incredible abilities toward focusing on what they do want and who they really are, their addictions will stand no chance in the wake of their greatness. 

With the change of the stories you tell, even an addiction can become an awakening rather than a disease. You are powerful. Remember that as you tell your stories.