Move the Plot #253

When we don’t know ourselves well enough as the main characters in our personal stories and we become polarized about only one of our details, we fall into what is known as one-dimensional thinking where a particular part becomes what we believe defines us. In a way by focusing on whatever that thing is, our view dims and the shadow of it then spreads out like a thick mist that cloaks everything within us, even the sunniest places in our hearts. Of course, it’s not that that specific BLAH isn’t important, it is a piece of us, but it is only so in some of the moments in our lives rather than all of them. It’s hard to ignore the loud voice of what hurts, though, because if we feel it, it must mean it is the truth about us. How can we write a love story about ourselves, then, if the words that should express what is good about us are always being enfolded by our terms that know what we don’t want or even hate about ourselves? In other words, how do we make sense of who we are as feeling individuals that are making our way on our inner journeys as well as traversing in our outside lives when what we say or fail to say to ourselves has the ability to throw us off of a cliff even when we are currently filled with hope on a debris-free, level trail? Imagine a story where the lead character is the exact definition of what you think beauty looks like. Words flow from that persona in the right tone as well as being the perfect choice in every moment. His or her location is ideal because the weather is always the proper mix of sunshine and rain allowing for a bouquet of flowers to be on the table at all times without having to find them. The home is always clean because no one ever makes a mess there. There are no rocks to stumble over, no glimpses of other views to feel bad about, no conflict and no uncertainty. That character even smiles while sleeping because there isn’t any anger, worry, hurt or feelings of inadequacies or mystical creatures to defeat. There isn’t even a need for words like hope and wishes because knowing what they feel like on the inside doesn’t fit with the easiness of replicating a matching view each day. Nor is there a necessity for understanding or curiosity because what is seen at first blush will be found in all of the sightings just like when we are polarized about a detail as being the definition of ourselves or someone else. With the turn of each page in that story, the same information will be repeated over and over and if that’s an accurate depiction of what is hoped for, then why would anyone want or need to see what’s around the bend or find other flowers when he or she could just stay safely there? Perhaps, though, the real truth is that that seemingly easy narrative holds a surprise plot twist where it’s really an account of a battle with a hidden dragon on the inside of that person. The kind of fire-breathing mystical creature that makes change impossible by using an individual’s desire not to feel the things that he or she doesn’t want to prevent him or her from venturing more than a few steps away from what is comfortable and familiar. That, of course, leads to remaining right where he or she is not unlike what we ourselves do in our own stories. Today or any day for that matter is a good day to move the plot in your epic tale by asking yourself where will you be tomorrow in your heart? What will you say there, and will it include at least one word of love for yourself that you have given yourself a moment to discover? Some of the most devastating dragons to ever inhabit our epic tales exist in the shadows of our feelings that we express in our words even when no one else can see, hear or experience them. Move your plot so that the BLAH is present in only some of your moments because it was never meant to be the only thing you believed about yourself. After all, you are not a one-dimensional, flat, walk-on character in someone else’s account but rather the writer as well as the main character in your own epic life. Have the best day POSSIBLE for you. Love Always, Heavell