These last two years have been quite a rollercoaster on my psyche and have had me questioning a lot of things in my life. Couple that with the fact that last year was my personal 7 year, numerologically speaking, which is an inward journey of reflection and reviewing one's life, goals, and directions and is full of questions of "why", "how", and "where", and let's just say my mind has not been a calm place to spend any time. As an air sign my head is typically full of thoughts on any given day, but in a 7 year it's cranked up to 11!

Over the last few months however I decided to not let myself get overwhelmed by my thoughts but rather take a more directorial approach to them. Thoughts come and go, and sometimes they are helpful. Other times they can be destructive, and if left to run wild can get very bad and have a negative effect on our lives. I was done letting them get the best of me.

The first step I had to go through was to recognize the theme of the internal conversations I was having with myself, and I wasn't happy with the views that my mind was delivering to me. And so, I had to challenge them instead of letting them have the final word. The conversations were interpretations of things that were happening or events from the past that had already happened and mostly took the shape of "I knew I wasn't good enough to do..." or "There you go doing it wrong again."

These interpretations were stories and opinions of what happened, a re-telling of a story from a particular point of view. These were not truth, only perceptions. Upon realizing the point of view from which the internal story was being told it was time to edit the narrative. The next step was to play with describing the situation from a different point of view.

Just like the default narrative that was being written, the new perspective didn't have to be true. It just had to be said, written, or thought. That's all. I could make one new interpretation or several. It didn't matter. As long as the original interpretation was not the final word. This is where I could practice writing a hero's journey as opposed to a victim's failure.

This was not a new exercise for me, but one that was out of practice. I had to stick with it for awhile to get better at it, and it eventually became quite fun to recognize the default story and immediately rewrite it in a way that would uplift me.

But I was getting tired of having to rewrite the story all the time. I was getting really good at it, but the same things kept coming up over and over again. One option was to dig into the past and try to find the inciting event that caused that voice to arise within and control my inner dialogues, and then spend time healing that part of me so that I could move forward in my life without it. But that wasn't my answer. As an over-analyzer I might get stuck in analysis-paralysis and never get out, never solve the puzzle, and worse yet, make it worse but focusing in on it too much.

Instead of living life in the rear-view, I chose to look forward and start writing the story that hasn't happened yet. This was the work of affirmations, vision boards, and inner pep talks. My hypnosis mentor would tell me to have clients focus in on what they want rather than trying to get rid of what they don't want. This way the 'want' starts taking up more space in the mind and diminishes the space the unwanted behavior or belief can have. Ultimately the desired outcome becomes the focus and the other one wilts away.

Now, each morning instead of sitting in silent meditation observing the thoughts, I am developing a new inner voice that is encouraging, that inspires me to live each day, that motivates me to do what I love, and that reminds me that the best is yet to come. My story keeps getting better... because I write it that way.

"Each day in every way, I am getting better and better." Try that one on for a couple weeks. See what effect it has on you. :-)

With the first day of spring coming up, it's time to wake up your best self. Let's do this!

Love,
Brian

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