Change Your Story Change Your Life
"Once you start approaching your body with curiosity rather than with fear, everything shifts".
Bessel van der Kolk, Best-selling Trauma Research Author/psychiatrist
What caught my eye with this quote is the ability we all have to shift our thoughts / the stories in our minds.
A couple months ago I had a client who’s common topic of discussion in the beginning of each session was how ‘hard work was’ and how much work she ‘had to get done every day’, etc. It was obvious she placed an enormous amount of pressure on herself and this causing her stress and anxiety. She was “retired” at that point from her career.
Without much thought I commented “I wonder if that story came from your father, when you were young, and for all these years you were thought to believe it’s your story. It’s probably not even true”.
To which she looked at me and paused, and said, “How did you know? Wow”.
And then, A Shift within her was literally visible.
The point to this isn’t that I had some phenomenal insight, it’s that if we listen to our common, ongoing stories we repeat over and over in our lives, often they’re not even TRUE for us. This women came to me with c/o of arm pain, appearing as if she was carrying such a ‘heavy load’. …………..and ‘Viola’!
No more carrying around her FATHER’S story’….it was his, not hers!