How the Stories we Tell can Cage us or Set us Free

We are storytellers. Drama, mystery, love, awakening and empowerment. Over and over we seek to uncover and unravel. To explore and understand. Stories hold our lineage, shares the culture and awakens a deep remembrance of our past, where we came from and who we are becoming. We find stories that we can relate to, that help us better understand ourselves and we find stories that inspire us to remind us to keep walking.

I love sharing stories about my life with my students because stories are what makes us relatable. We can see ourselves in each other and recognize we are more alike than we are apart.

I have been sitting with the idea of stories about how they can either set us free or cage us in.

What are your repeating stories?

Do they support you in accessing a deeper connection to Self?

Or do they keep you small, blinded to your own true expansive Self?

We are more than the labels we place on our lives such as mother, daughter, sister, healer, friend, empath, intuitive, etc. Whatever it might be. Yet these stories I tell about myself and these labels I place on myself help me to relate with this world. Stories are the human language. They are how we connect and share wisdom.

I believe the defining question is, am I attached to my labels and stories or do I give myself permission, to grow, to expand, to release one label and explore another? Furthermore, how am I limiting myself by trying to keep myself comfortable within the labels I have been wearing for so long?

Our freedom is not in getting rid of all our stories and labels, but in how willing we are to shed and release them when they no longer truly align.

Some examples of limiting stories may be “I will never make this much money,” “I will never find a loving partner,” “I will never have a healthy relationship with my family,” “I will start following my dreams after I don’t have this responsibility,” and so on.

Some labels that may go along with these stories are “I am not a confident person,” “I am easily replaceable,” “I am not a good communicator,” “I am not beautiful.” And so on.

Are these stories and labels aligning you with your Highest Potential? Are they supporting you in understanding more of who you are? Or are they keeping small, limited, and contained?

Some of the stories we tell can be our limiting beliefs and identifying them is the first step. The next step is consciously choosing a new reality, a new story, and one that is in alignment with your highest truth.

Eventually, we free ourselves from all stories and merge simply with the I AM presence of our true Self which is beyond any words. But there are stories that can support our awakening and deeper understanding of our true Self so that we can remind ourselves, through our words, through our memories and through sacred connection of our true self.

What started this thought process was a reference to a book called “The Highly Sensitive Person” by Elaine Aron. I heard of this book a few years back during a podcast and then was referenced again in a book I am currently reading called “Mirrors in the Earth” by Asia Suler.

As she was describing her experience as a Highly Sensitive Person, I was overcome by such intense emotions of understanding and clarity. Suddenly, within a few paragraphs, years upon years of my life started making much more sense to me.

I then paused and asked myself, is this story, calling myself “a highly sensitive person” going to limit me or expand me? Am I going to put myself in a box and disconnect from my true self or is this story supporting a deeper understanding of how I relate to the world?

Over a couple days I really sat with this question and started to see how I began noticing more of my own necessary boundaries and why I just am unable to do “normal” things like many other people can because I am just generally sensitive and get overstimulated, easily. I started seeing so many “ahas” to situations in my life that left me completely drained and realized why, for so many years, I could not enjoy movies because they completely overstimulated my body. I understand why I was called “sensitive” so much as a child and was always in “my own world,” day dreaming and wandering beyond this world.

So, I realized that this story about my innate sensitivities gave me such a deeper understanding of myself and therefore a release of pressure, that I didn’t realize I was holding, to try and desensitize myself.  

Over the years, I have learned many healing techniques for energy protection and have stepped into my voice and power to set my boundaries than compared to when I was in my teens and early twenties. So, I have learned, in my own way to handle my sensitives so that I can be in the world, to my best capacity. But it is quite refreshing having a more complete understanding of this.

This example shares, in one way, how a story helped to set me free and yet I remind myself to not attach to this story. The “aha” of this understanding is so refreshing, yet our small sense of self wants to cling to stories in order to feel like we have some sort of control. So, although we hold these stories, these labels and yes, some do support our divine connection, spiritual evolution and actualization of our purpose in this lifetime, it is important to not become attached to them and to set ourselves free, time and time again.