Morning Vibes With Dr. Jerry - the First - Episode 236/The Story that's Controlling Your Thoughts (and Your Life)

   

Monday                         7th May 2018

Morning Vibes With Dr. Jerry - the First

Hello and welcome to #MorningVibesWithDrJerryTheFirst-Episode 236

Title:          The Story that's Controlling Your Thoughts (and Your Life)

In a very real way, the stories we tell ourselves change what we see in life.

When we enter an experience with a story about how life is, that tends to be what we see, even when there's plenty of evidence to the contrary.

I was reminded of this recently by an attendee at our Annual General Conference

She compared her present marital problems and stress to an old parable in which a group of blind men touch an elephant for the very first time to learn what it’s like. Each one of them feels a different part of the elephant, but only that one part, such as the leg, trunk, side or tusk. Then the men eagerly compare notes and quickly learn that they are in complete disagreement about what an elephant looks like—and lots of tension and drama ensued.

Something similar happens through our wide-ranging, different past experiences.

Some of us have been deeply heartbroken.

Some of us have lost our parents, siblings or children to accidents and illnesses.

Some of us have dealt with infidelity.

Some of us have been fired from jobs we relied on. Some of us have been discriminated against because of our gender or race. And, when we enter a new experience that arouses prominent memories of our own painful story from the past, it shifts our perspective in the present—it narrows it.

When a negative past experience narrows our present perspective, it’s mostly just a defense mechanism.

Every day of our lives we are presented with some level of uncertainty, and our innate human defense mechanisms don’t like this one bit. So our minds try to compensate by filling in the gaps of information by clinging to the stories we already feel comfortable with. We end up subconsciously trying to make better sense of everything in the present by using old stories and past experiences as filler. And while this approach works sometimes, other times our old stories and past experiences are completely irrelevant to the present moment, so they end up hurting us and those we love far more than they help.

Thus, my challenge for you today is this:

Whenever you feel tension and drama building up inside you, ask yourself...

What is the story I'm telling myself right now?

Can I be absolutely certain this story is true?

How do I feel and behave when I tell myself this story?

What else would I see and experience if I removed the story from my mind?

Do your best to consciously detach yourself from the story you’re telling yourself. Go deeper into reality. Don’t just look at the surface. Investigate. Observe without presupposing.

It’s about thinking better right now so you can ultimately live better right now.

The key is to understand that no matter what happened, you can choose your response in this moment, which dictates pretty much everything that happens next.

Truly, the greatest weapon you have against anxiety, negativity and stress is your ability to choose one present thought over another—to train your mind to make the best of what you’ve got in front of you, without the story!

Yes, YOU CAN change the way you think! 

And once you do, you can master a new way to be.

Until I come your way again, this is #MorningVibesWithDrJerryTheFirst

Keep it coming!!!

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