What seems true isn’t always the truth

I know not to always believe the voice in my head, but that doesn’t stop me from sometimes giving it too much attention.

I enjoy writing but I don’t always feel confident doing it. I wanted to change the stories of fear that blocked me from pressing publish. So I reframed my thoughts into a new story of learning, and asked what if I give myself permission to explore and play with writing; no purpose, no goal, no attached meaning, just fun?

For several weeks I’ve pressed publish regardless of whether I felt confident doing so. The idea that I had to be confident to do it was just another story I’d made up.

It seems like the roadblocks stopping us from taking action start with our thinking. I’ve been learning to notice the difference between what truths seem true and what is actually true.

What seemed true

It’s the old stories that we’ve created into truths and beliefs that end up holding us back. These stories have been on replay in our minds for years, maybe once they were useful but now they impact our thinking and behaviour in ways that hinder us — for example the story that confidence is something you are innately born with, and not something that is practiced.

What could be true

Our thinking is influenced and learned over a lifetime of experiences based on gender, sexuality, race, socio-economic background, culture and anything else that defines how you’ve identified yourself. There are lots of real systemic barriers and blockers to taking action and making a change in the world. But what is more clear to me, is that it is the illusionary ones that seem to get in our way the most — fears created from thoughts.

What is always true

Seeing something new, or something old in a new way can have an impact on more than one area of life. When your thinking shifts, things move from impossible to possible, more action occurs and yesterdays truth seems fallible.

These things appear to be true to me now (and are not necessarily fundamental truths).

- We are not the stories we tell ourselves.

- We live in the feeling of our thinking.

- Whatever thinking you practice, determines your relationship with everything else.

We are not the stories we tell ourselves.