Will you be okay?

Would you be fine?

If the worst possible thing you can imagine actually happened?

If that thing you hate to think about became a reality?

If all those fears were true?

How often are you busy in these stories?

I notice that there is a deep practice and commitment to the incitement of fear around the ‘worst possible thing’.  Governments, businesses and churches are trading fear; even brands trade in fear.

I believe it’s simply the wrong kind of story.

Tony Robbins say, “we are defined by the stories we tell ourselves, every one of us has a story or a set of stories….the question is, is your story empowering you to maximize what god has given you, or is your story causing you to fall short.”

When we tell stories that keep us in fear, it’s the wrong kind of story.

We have so many better stories.

When I was about 5 years old my sister told me that strawberries, my absolute favorite fruit at that time, grow on the ground and there are worms in them.  I was horrified.  I didn’t touch a strawberry again for years.  Finally as a teenager, I started to eat the delightful fruit again, but could never put a whole strawberry in my mouth; I always had to bite it in half first, take a look inside, before popping the rest in.

To this day, I hesitate before I put a whole strawberry in my mouth.

Sounds ridiculous, right?  It is.

But here’s another. I grew up knowing; yes that’s right, not just hearing but actually knowing, that I could do and be whatever I chose.

That meant that when I decided to start my own business, it never occurred to me that I would not succeed. Not seriously. I knew that if I really wanted to do this, I could and I would.

Now that’s an empowering story.
And it’s not about success, it’s about knowing I’d be okay even in failure;  that the doing and the being were the most important thing, the outcome would take care of itself.
It reminds m of that amazing song, ”That I would be good”, by Alanis Morissette.

‘that I would be good even if I did nothing,

that I would be good even if I got and stayed sick

that I would be good even if I gained 10 pounds’

This is not some kind of wishful thinking or blind faith.  This is the right kind of story.

It is a state of grace.

A place of acceptance and love. A place of Freedom

‘That I would be fine even if I went bankrupt…

That I would be grand even if I was not all knowing’

Let’s tell that story.

The story of empowerment and grace. It’s the story of freedom.

What’s yours?

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