The Harsh Reality
We Create Our Experience
Photo by Elena Mozhvilo on Unsplash
What most people don’t understand and are not willing to accept is that we create our experience of life.
Not the weather, not the guy who cut you off on the way to work, not your boss, not the traffic jam, not the co-worker who you just can’t stand, not your wife, your daughter, your mother, the time of day etc.
Don’t get me wrong I am not saying that these things don’t happen or that they are not irritating, frustrating, painful and upsetting. They do happen and they are all of those things but we don’t have to experience them that way.
Putting that another way bad things can and do happen but we do not have to experience them as bad.
What most people don’t realise, what we are rarely taught at home or at school, is that it is our perception of what is happening that creates the experience.
Our perception of the thing is not the thing itself.
That distinction may not be immediately obvious.
In fact it rarely is and it is a skill to discern between the fact of what has happened e.g. I got cut off in the traffic today and the story that we lay over that fact e.g. people who cut people off in traffic are jerks, others don’t see or respect me, life always throws me curved balls and makes me late.
Perception is a powerful creative force that, in addition to causing us to experience life in ways that we don’t want to, often takes us away from what we really want.
To quote Tony Robbins “The only thing that’s keeping you from getting what you want is the story you keep telling yourself.”
It is the story that creates the emotion, the drama and ultimately our experience. Stories are the vehicles that determine what we get in life.
Being able to discern between the facts of reality, good, bad or ugly gives us the power to choose the story we want to use to navigate in life.
This skill is one we can start to work on in any moment.
Notice emotions like irritation, frustration, anger or any emotion that is producing an unwanted experience. Take a moment to acknowledge that you are having an unwanted experience and then ask yourself for awareness of the fact underneath or separate from the experience.
This question opens up the subtle process of bringing awareness to the fact vs the story and what you will discover is that awareness is power.
When we see the truth that someone cut us off in traffic and it doesn’t mean anything about us, others or the world we can choose if we thump the steering wheel, cuss the bugger or take a breath, acknowledge the experience, accept what has just happened and move into the rest of the day.
I don’t recommend you do this to be a good or better person but rather because taking responsibility for our experience gives you the power to be the predominant creative force in your life.
#reality #stories #awareness #power