How many times have you had a conversation with someone and thought to yourself, “Is this person nuts?”
“What are they thinking?”
“Why would they do that?”
Here’s the thing: they’re not out of their mind; the problem is the opposite, they’re in their mind.
They’re doing what I call Storytelling.
Storytelling is what your mind does when it makes up stories about what something might mean, and it usually leads to upset or loneliness.
Again, it’s not what is actually happening. It’s a story you have created based on what you fear might happen, or a reason you created in your mind as to why someone may be doing something. A simple example of this is when you walk by someone who laughs and there’s a part of your mind that thinks, “Was she laughing at me?”
Storytelling happens in all areas of your life.
Relationships: Imagining things should be or are supposed to be a certain way, even though the reality is they are not.
Work: When your boss calls you for a meeting and you start driving yourself nuts by telling yourself stories—you start obsessing over “Why is s/he calling me?” and “What did I do wrong?”
Socially: When you think something a friend said means one thing, and then you talk to them and find out that’s not what they meant or were thinking at all. When a person looks at you and you start thinking they don’t like you or are making fun of you.
Storytelling comes in many different forms, but nonetheless, it always takes you away from the present moment and often times leads to fear, sadness, anger and anxiety. Storytelling creates the gap between what you’re imagining things to be, and reality—and this, my friends, is what leads to pain.
So how do you stop storytelling?
Being aware that you are storytelling is the first step to stopping it. When you start feeling anger, sadness, loneliness, ask yourself, What story is my mind creating about this situation? Is this what is really happening or is this what I am imagining/dreaming/fearing something to be or wanting/wishing something was? Have I created a story about what might be happening? \
You need to become present by focusing on where you are at the moment, and recognize what your mind is doing.
When you become present, the stories stop, and the gifts start appearing. You’ll see.
This is a Contributor Post. Opinions expressed here are opinions of the Contributor. Influencive does not endorse or review brands mentioned; does not and cannot investigate relationships with brands, products, and people mentioned and is up to the Contributor to disclose. Contributors, amongst other accounts and articles may be professional fee-based.