Change Your Story, Change Your Life…

This SOUNDS so simple – yet it isn’t always EASY, is it?

Have you been trying to change a story that isn’t supporting you and feeling like you’re falling short? Maybe your old stories keep coming up and the new ones seem hard to hold onto. Or it’s starting to feel like you may never get the hang of this and you find yourself frustrated and self-critical…again.

Guess what…there is nothing wrong with you. You aren’t broken. Or deficient. Or somehow less able than others to make this change.

It’s actually your BRAIN.

Yup. That gray mass inside your skull, sitting on your stressed shoulders.

For every thought we have or action we take, a microscopic, threadlike neural connection gets formed. Each time that thought or action is repeated, another microscopic thread lays down on top of the previous ones. Eventually, there are so many microscopic threads along the same path, that a not-so-microscopic “rope” develops. These ropes act like well-worn paths in our brain. They are easy to follow and hard to avoid.

Think about when you brush your teeth. You automatically reach for your toothbrush where it lives, let’s say on the left side of your sink. If you move your toothbrush to the right side of the sink, you continue to reach to your left to grab your toothbrush – for DAYS! (Try it for yourself. It’s pretty funny.) The hundreds – even thousands – of times you reached to the left for your toothbrush created a “well-worn path” that now takes conscious effort to reconstruct.

When we recognize and acknowledge the time and attention it takes to change something as simple as reaching for our toothbrush, we get perspective on what it takes to change the more significant “paths” we have created over the years in our brains. Like our paths of self-criticism and harsh judgment. Like our stories that we aren’t worthy or capable of having the life, relationship or career we desire.

Make sense?

Imagine a dense jungle, thick with undergrowth, vines, thorny bushes and lots of trees. If there was a well-used, clear path to where you wanted to go, you’d take it, right? However, if you’re heading somewhere you haven’t been before – like acknowledging your accomplishments or believing you are lovable and worthy –  you need to clear a new path.

Think about hacking through that dense jungle with a machete, expending effort every step of the way just to get through to your desired destination. You can make it to where you want to go but your new path is still fresh and faint. Until you have hacked your way through several times, beating back the distracting thorns and vines, that path will be easy to miss, difficult to clear and quick to regrow.

Our brains are like that jungle. Until we have created our new path and followed it many, many times, we tend to default to that old, easier-to-follow path instead. THAT is why changing our story can be frustrating and challenging. But it IS possible.

Are you ready to sharpen your machete, so you can clear the underbrush and create paths that support you in achieving lasting change?

Click HERE to schedule your FREE “Change Your Story Breakthrough Session” with me and we will determine where you’re stuck, clarify where you want to go and establish the new path to get there!  There are only a few times available over the next several days so get yours NOW! They fill up fast.