Have you ever stopped to consider the story you are telling yourself about your life?
Take 60 seconds to think about that.
Really. Think for a moment.
Close your eyes with curiosity, wondering . . . What would be the title of the book that tells the story of my life?
Do you have that title in mind? Maybe a few choice words that ought not be published?
Life is hard, my friend.
In my role as a coach over the last decade, and now as a counselor, I’m privy to the darkest and hardest parts of humanity’s stories. I can attest that suffering is a reality on this side of heaven.
Pain is not the least bit prejudice.
No one is given a free ride, even if it may look that way from the outside.
The problem is not that hard things happen to all of us, but rather what happens when we break under the weight of it all.
However, I believe that we ALL have the ability to cultivate bounce-back-ability, better known as resilience.
Yes, you can become more resilient!
It starts with a willingness to change the story you’re telling yourself.
Everything you’ve been through has shaped you, and you can’t change that. But HOW you process WHAT has happened to you, and WHATEVER you’ve done to yourself (let’s face it, we all make poor choices at times), impacts the decisions you will make in the future.
If you tell yourself you’re a failure, you won’t risk future failure, even for a good thing like a promising job.
If you tell yourself you’re not loveable, you’ll hold back from even healthy opportunities to be loved.
If you tell yourself you’ll always be an angry person, you’ll continue to explode at the littlest of things.
See the pattern?
All that junk you have stored up in your heart and mind and body is telling a story and influencing the next.
Unresolved emotions and unprocessed thoughts around past experiences don’t just go away. They shape you and the decisions you’re making every day. When that influence feels overwhelming, the go-to coping strategy is either to suppress it, ignore it, or numb it out. But busyness, workaholism, Netflix binging, and social media scrolling, don’t change reality. Nor does that glass of wine or bowl of ice cream every night resolve the tension within.
The only thing that will bring about a better tomorrow is tending to the story you’re telling yourself by caring for your whole heart, mind, and body right now.
Yes, that means kicking the “buckle up buttercup” mantras to the curb, as cute and catchy as they sound . . .
. . . and instead choosing to do the deeper work of caring for yourself from the inside out. That, my friend, is how you can change your story.
No, you can’t change the past. You can’t rewrite history.
But you can start a new chapter today, building on one story at a time.
It’s a plot twist invitation that stands before you!
What will yours look like? How about a story of redemption and restoration ? Freedom and victory? Forgiveness and grace? Love and mercy? Rescue and rest?
So I ask you again, what is the story you’re telling yourself? How would imagining a new story change the way you feel about yourself and your life right now?
Maybe this is just the invitation you need to be a little more resilient!
Yes, if you want to end up in a different place than you’re destined for, you have to make a change in direction right now.
So what are you waiting for you?
You don’t have to go at it alone.
I’m here for you.
Cheering you on as one who is equally discovering how to embrace her inner resilience as my story continues to unfold!
Peace and grace,
Lisa
Founder of StableMinded.us
