The stories we tell ourselves about our lives dictate the type of life
we're going to have. This is really important to understand, especially
if you're in a place where you don't have a lot of financial resources.
The one thing that you really can't afford when you're poor is believing
everything people tell you about who you are and what your life is
going to be like and most importantly, what you should want.
Oh I
was just about to tell you a lie. I was going to say it doesn't cost
anything to think for yourself. But oh baby, my sweet darling, it will
cost you so much to think for yourself. You will lose things; I have
lost things and sometimes this loss hurts an awful lot. You will lose
the comfort of the herd. You will lose sweet oblivion. You will lose the
intoxicating fever of experience without context; the blissful heady
rush that comes from not thinking things through. You will lose regard
and relationships. It is a painful thing at times to see things as they
most likely are, rather than how they are presented.
There is a
price for the path I'm recommending, and it's not a small price. But I
think it well-worth it, all these years on, and perhaps you will too.
The stories we tell ourselves about our lives dictate the type of life we're going to have.
Every day we wake up in relationship with Story. We tell ourselves,
continually and subconsciously, a very powerful narrative. We tell
ourselves if we're happy or not. We tell ourselves if we're competent.
We tell ourselves if we're strong. We tell ourselves if we are healthy.
We tell ourselves if we are beautiful. We tell ourselves if we are
loved. We tell ourselves if we love others. We tell ourselves if we are
masters of our fate or if we are helpless leaves in a hurricane. We tell
ourselves if we trust our own selves, our own voice, our own
experience, our own perception of the world.
We are not the only
ones telling stories to us. Now, more than at any other point in human
history, we are awash in a sea of messaging. We are bombarded by
Stories. These stories tell us many things. They tell us first and
foremost that we're not happy. That we're incomplete. That we're not
good enough. We're not beautiful enough. We're certainly not healthy
enough. These stories tell us that we are unworthy of regard, that we
are managing our lives badly, that we are incompetent - unless, of
course, we buy the right things. Given the right makeup, prescription
medications, and phenomenally expensive college education we can buy our
way into worthiness. That is how the story goes.
All I'm asking
you this morning - and every morning - is to consider critically whether
these stories we're being told are actually true. Consider how much
you're exposing yourself to the narratives. You may think that these
stories are not touching you, but as a marketer of some experience
here, let me assure you of this: if I can tell you several times an
hour, every single day, that there is something wrong with you and that
you need medication to fix it, eventually you will believe you are sick.
If
we are going to heal ourselves - if we are going to heal each other,
and our communities, and eventually the world - we need to take our
stories back. It starts with what you tell yourself about yourself. You
are smart, and beautiful, and strong, and capable of making yourself
wholly into the person you want to be. You have come this far, and you
will go much further yet. Telling yourself this is the first step in
making it your own truth.
Onward, upward, forward, y'all. We have
toxic prevailing cultural paradigms that need smashing to smithereens.
I'm gonna need your help.
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