PhotoCredit: Banishing
What do you completely suck at? What is your worst attribute? What is the story that you tell yourself when you are at your lowest; when nothing seems to go your way?
Is there one story? Are there multiple? Are these bedtime stories that play on a loop as you go to sleep or do your stories greet you in the morning? "Rise and Shine. Allow me to start your day with a mental barrage of all the things you will fail at today."
We collect these stories like jeans that no longer fit. Like power cords we will never use. For devices we no longer own. They do not serve us. They do not spark joy. Yet, we cling to them like crutches well after the bones have healed.
We need to banish these thoughts as Jennifer Connolly banished the Goblin King in my all-time favorite movie. We need to state, unequivocally, "you have no power over me."
For the last few weeks I have been working with Julie Cameron's Morning Pages. The process is simple, you write three pages, handwritten, in a journal each morning. No stopping. No editing. Just write.
This process magically draws out the stories. Gets them from the head to the page and removes their energy. As the nonsense is forcibly extracted it has no where to hide. Laid bare, it becomes less a statement and more a (bad) question. Then, it seemingly shrivels and dies as the question is revealed for the rubbish it is.
The evening stories are a little sneakier. They feed on the unsuspecting end-of-day brain. A brain that has been busily helping you process information and sees this as another input. A brain that doesn't know any better than to get to work like any other instruction from the boss. Whispering to you as you shut your eyes at night. Slipping in at the last minute to disturb and disrupt your sleep.
Except, you are the boss. This is your moment to have control of one small thing for the day. So shut that dialogue down and fill the void with something else. I love an inspiring podcast or meditation podcast, Deepak Chopra or Tara Brach always work for me. I am also a big fan of proper bedtime stories a la audible. Pick anything that floats your boat. Set the sleep timer on your app and drift on off. The Goblin King can go mess with someone else's head.