Reduce Distractions When You Work on Personal Narratives
If you’ve been reading my weekly posts you’ve already learned about the impact of our personal narratives (aka personal stories) on our current lives. Hint: They have incredible power!
Personal narratives can come from within ourselves, or they can come from the people and communities we are part of, or even from the whole culture - all sources for the stories we live by.
A lot of our personal narratives can hold us back - not all, but a lot. I’m thinking of things like limiting beliefs, conformity, and self fulfilling prophecies. Does that bring any to mind for you? Where are you being held back by ideas or beliefs that don’t serve you?
Once you’ve found the source of those beliefs, you have the option to change them, reject them, or just live with them. The important info is that you have the option!
How do we rewrite the ones that are holding us back? I’m breaking down the process over 3 posts. The last post was about finding a safe place for deep work. Today’s is the 2nd post, on best practices for finding the sources of our personal narratives.
It is easiest to look at our old stories if there aren’t new stories coming in at the same time.
Using a skilled coach or therapist can help keep the work focused. Chances are that you have health insurance that provides for a limited number of therapy sessions. If you aren’t already putting that benefit to work, now is the time.
Meditation may seem like the buzz word for the era, but there is a good reason why. It works. In this case, use your meditation time to ask questions of yourself, wait, and listen to the answers.
Journalling should be done every day, at a set time. Ideally don’t limit how long you can journal - this is a chance for your subconscious to come pouring out without restrictions on what it can say and how long it can go on.
Use prompts for your meditation and journaling that ask open ended questions, such as, “what impact did members of my family have on my limitations now?” “In what ways does my culture hold me back from what I want to achieve?” “What is the ideal community like that would support me as I grow?”
I’ve personally taken these steps many times in my life. I’ve also seen this work time after time for my singing and speaking students. Discovering your personal narratives is a level of self-care that can have a huge positive impact on the rest of your life.
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My name is Nancy Bos. I’m a vocologist, speaker, and author. If you want to support me as a speaker, you can help by:
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Thank you!!