Work of the Soul

Why do we keep retelling the same story?

Sat, 10 Dec 2011 01:10:00 +0000

I find that the adult keeps repeating the story in an attempt to keep it alive- perhaps it is that they feel that a death occured.. or little deaths upon their precious souls. They keep repeating the story with each failed relationship, loss of friends or family. They use the story as their lens and it clouds and confuses all they see and experience. They often filter out their own joy in an attempt to protect themselves from that which might harm or hurt them. They filter out their delight, awe and wonder, often trading it in for accomplishment, control, fantasy, desire. They protect themselves with over thinking, logic, cautious planning and the lure of security.

What they really need is to tell the story to someone who will listen. They themselves need to listen to their own heart. They need their loss to be acknowledged, grieved, honored and finally surrendered.

written by Mary Hoffman

2/13/2010

Watch your thoughts

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 13:47:00 +0000

"Watch your thoughts, they become words.

Watch your words, they become actions.

Watch your actions, they become habits.

Watch your habits, they become your character.

Watch your character, it becomes your destiny."

Author Unknown

The first time I saw this quote was while sitting in my chiropractors office. My chiropractor treated everyone equally. Doing this requires that each of us take accountability for our inner lives just as we do our outer lives. Consider the change that would be possible if we would each carefully consider and observe and clean up our own thoughts. Thoughts are powerful and can do great good but they can also do great harm, so watch your thoughts. Speaking poorly about yourself or about others is harmful. Those thoughts are filtered through your perceptions and may or not be true, they are merely your assessment. If you are going to talk about someone why not share something that is kind. Share the highest story of a person. Remember the saying "that if you don't have something nice to say...don't say anything." We could be healing and helping ourselves and others with our thoughts and our words.

If you want to understand the power of your thoughts try this excercise that I use occassionally when teaching. Close your eyes and consider something negative or painful. Pay attention to how your body is feeling. Now think of something that pleases you. How does your body feel? What you just experienced was the power of your own thoughts. Here is a short clip that goes into describing the physiology of thoughts.

Be kind, do no harm.

Change your story change your life

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 15:32:00 +0000

I have been thinking lately about the power of our story and that we all have our own evolving story lines. We each have different characters and plays that we have created based on our perceptions but none of us really know other people's plays or what their story lines are unless we share them. So we should never, ever assume that they are anything like ours. They have their play and we have ours. A simple conversation can introduce us to a few of their main characters. We can also start having a conversation or inner dialogue with ourselves so that we become skilled at getting to know our own inner cast. We can change our cast by changing our perceptions, changing our character/s and our view, we can even adapt or recreate our storyline but this takes time and understanding. We cannot change other people's plays but we can discover what part that have us cast in. We can even change their perceptions by what story we present. It's good to know what part we play in other people's dramas.

We begin by observing our own patterns of perception and the stories we tell ourselves. Some people don't know they are trapped in old roles, beliefs and some do know but they don't know how to change. Some of the roles have been difficult or painful and perhaps that story has never been told. I was thinking about how a child will wait forever for a parent to return. It doesn't care how badly the parent has treated it, for it holds on to hope, even if the child is mad. The Inner Child does this as well, it waits for us patiently and when the time is right it will let you know what it has to say.

Our stories, our perceptions can change by doing Inner Work and by getting to know those characters.

For instance if we have been abandoned or neglected as children or abused we may perceive that others are abandoning us when in fact they have a whole other script going. The only way out is to go in!

Our roles may change over time but that child might be pretty unhappy if it was forced to play a lousy part, after all don't we all prefer a good role. The good news is we can change the story line, recast our characters. We can recreate and start a new family, an inner family and a new story for our lives. It is never too late.

The true teacher lives within each of us and it is our job to come to know that wise teacher. We need to move into the job of directing our own lives and begining to rewrite and change our script. Being a director is not for everyone for it means taking control of what is happening.

This is your life why not make it great!

written by,

Mary Hoffman, MA

2009