Our stories are sacred. Our stories are not who we are.

I was practicing a meditation the other day when I heard these words:

Our stories are sacred. We are not our stories.

It’s a line that’s been repeating in my head, like a mantra, ever since.

Anytime anything happens in our lives, our brain immediately creates a story about it from our perspective based on our past experiences, our beliefs, our identity, etc.

The more people who are involved in an experience, the more versions of the story there are.

That is never more apparent than now when we’re constantly getting breaking news alerts promoting different versions of the story.

There is a lot of energy spent on trying to figure out which version of the story is true, or prove that one version is correct over another. And the truth is, there is no one right version and there are parts of every story that are true for someone.

When we falsely cling to the belief that our stories are who we are, we will never be open to believing another version of a story.

And we lose the true purpose of why our brain creates these stories in the first place.

Stories are meant to be listened to.
Stories are meant to be learned from.
Stories are meant to help us understand more.

We can’t create a different future if we keep holding onto our past stories.

They are sacred. But they are not who we are.

We have the ability to honor them without allowing them to shape our future.

What stories might you be holding onto that are not conducive to helping create the future you want?