Have you ever told your story?
I don't mean a casual conversation about the things you've seen and done, I mean your real, authentic story. The version in which you look deep and hard at your life experiences and consider how you've been changed through them, and how you affected the people around you in the process. Whether you tell your whole life story or just focus in on a specific chapter of it, there's absolute magic involved if you put the time and energy into doing it well! By magic I mean the potential for serious transformation - both within yourself and in other people!
When something happens to you, you can only experience and process that event using the lenses through which you see the world at that time. Your frame of reference largely determines how you're affected by the experience on the intellectual, emotional, psychic, and even spiritual levels. More often than not, we deal with that particular experience or situation as best as we can and then we move on with life - and if it's a "negative" experience many of us don't spend much time thinking about it any more. Over time as we live, learn and grow and we gain new intellectual and emotional tools that change and strengthen our frame of reference. If we take the time to look back at major past life experiences and re-examine them using our newer, better frame of reference we can gain new insights and understandings that allow us to take something significantly different away from it. For example, in my own journey I experienced a deep heartbreak at the age of 13 and it shook me to the core - and I subconsciously carried the trauma and the painful lessons learned with me all the way into adulthood. Nearly 30 years later I did some challenging personal work in which I looked closely at what happened to me all those years ago, and with my stronger and more mature frame of reference I was able to see that the story I had been telling myself for all those years was the one created by the 13 year old - and it was seriously flawed. The wounded, scared boy had created a false story to protect himself, and by looking at it later through a better frame of reference I was able to heal the trauma and forgive the other person involved. The personal transformation was magic and it profoundly affected my ability to love others moving forward - and this kind of internal magic is available to everyone willing to do the work to find it!
Telling your real, authentic story can also unleash an external magic, in which you can change the world for the better by inspiring others that experience something similar to yours. Often when we're going through really hard times it feels like we're isolated and have to figure things out on our own, but in truth much of what we encounter is a shared human experience that many others have dealt with before us. In dark times it can be amazingly uplifting and inspiring to learn that we aren't alone, that others have felt what we feel, and that there's a light at the end of the tunnel. I've seen this external magic in action numerous times over the past couple years as Rising Phoenix Award (www.risingphoenixawards.org) nominees shared their stories publicly and then others in the community shared that they were inspired by them! Every major life experience has the potential to unleash internal and external magic, and sharing your story can have a ripple effect that can change the world in ways you can't imagine.
At Intentional Legacies we offer the annual Rising Phoenix Awards to offer "Inspiration Through Story" and the Village Wisdom Portal as a community resource to collect and share your stories as "Pebbles of Wisdom" that others can be inspired through. However and wherever you choose to do it, there's magic and inspiration in telling your story, and whether you're 25 years old or 100 I strongly encourage you to take the time to review, reframe, and then tell some or all of your story.
Namaste!
I don't mean a casual conversation about the things you've seen and done, I mean your real, authentic story. The version in which you look deep and hard at your life experiences and consider how you've been changed through them, and how you affected the people around you in the process. Whether you tell your whole life story or just focus in on a specific chapter of it, there's absolute magic involved if you put the time and energy into doing it well! By magic I mean the potential for serious transformation - both within yourself and in other people!
When something happens to you, you can only experience and process that event using the lenses through which you see the world at that time. Your frame of reference largely determines how you're affected by the experience on the intellectual, emotional, psychic, and even spiritual levels. More often than not, we deal with that particular experience or situation as best as we can and then we move on with life - and if it's a "negative" experience many of us don't spend much time thinking about it any more. Over time as we live, learn and grow and we gain new intellectual and emotional tools that change and strengthen our frame of reference. If we take the time to look back at major past life experiences and re-examine them using our newer, better frame of reference we can gain new insights and understandings that allow us to take something significantly different away from it. For example, in my own journey I experienced a deep heartbreak at the age of 13 and it shook me to the core - and I subconsciously carried the trauma and the painful lessons learned with me all the way into adulthood. Nearly 30 years later I did some challenging personal work in which I looked closely at what happened to me all those years ago, and with my stronger and more mature frame of reference I was able to see that the story I had been telling myself for all those years was the one created by the 13 year old - and it was seriously flawed. The wounded, scared boy had created a false story to protect himself, and by looking at it later through a better frame of reference I was able to heal the trauma and forgive the other person involved. The personal transformation was magic and it profoundly affected my ability to love others moving forward - and this kind of internal magic is available to everyone willing to do the work to find it!
Telling your real, authentic story can also unleash an external magic, in which you can change the world for the better by inspiring others that experience something similar to yours. Often when we're going through really hard times it feels like we're isolated and have to figure things out on our own, but in truth much of what we encounter is a shared human experience that many others have dealt with before us. In dark times it can be amazingly uplifting and inspiring to learn that we aren't alone, that others have felt what we feel, and that there's a light at the end of the tunnel. I've seen this external magic in action numerous times over the past couple years as Rising Phoenix Award (www.risingphoenixawards.org) nominees shared their stories publicly and then others in the community shared that they were inspired by them! Every major life experience has the potential to unleash internal and external magic, and sharing your story can have a ripple effect that can change the world in ways you can't imagine.
At Intentional Legacies we offer the annual Rising Phoenix Awards to offer "Inspiration Through Story" and the Village Wisdom Portal as a community resource to collect and share your stories as "Pebbles of Wisdom" that others can be inspired through. However and wherever you choose to do it, there's magic and inspiration in telling your story, and whether you're 25 years old or 100 I strongly encourage you to take the time to review, reframe, and then tell some or all of your story.
Namaste!
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