Mulling over yesterday's post, I realize how long I've been telling that story about my childhood.  I used to tell it and tell it and tell it and that's because I was so attached to it. I identified with it and it was part of me. My energy and emotions used to be wrapped up in it. So I wrote down everything in a memoir, and I remembered that when I finished writing it, I felt a definite shift of energy in my body and life. I didn't feel so attached to it anymore. I had gotten it off my chest, rather than it all just spinning around in the back of my heart.I've noticed that the ability to let go of your story is essential to healing. I saw my sister yesterday, and she still struggles with her past. He identifies with it and it makes her safe and comfortable.  Eckhart Tolle would call this the pain body, and it has a life of its own. We continue to see the world from this story's point of view, and we create the world because of it. If you ever get a chance to take the Landmark Forum, it explores your story as well and your need to dis-identify with it. It's just a story. It doesn't exist anymore. All that exists is now. We can hold onto that story and suffer, or we can create a new day. Remember, the Aboriginies and other cultures don't hold to our linear idea of time. That whatever happened to us in the past is still with us and marching on to some end. A cyclical idea of time is that it's all right now. The first day of creation is everyday. So observe your story, let go. In Part II E-Courses, Stories from the Heart, we make our own healing fairy tale. I'm making a new one to deal with my resistance to change. Like I said, I can still hold onto some negative thinking, and it keeps me safe, it's what I know. It's my ego mind hanging on for dear life. It's like hanging out with two trolls in the basement. They are my friends, but not really. A frog appears and shows me some steps up higher to the castle I'm not aware that I am in. But I like to hang out with the trolls, but eventually, because I am exposed to the higher levels, I can move beyond the trolls. I can finally let go of things that no longer serve me. Meditation has that effect. Asana has stopped my busy mind from chatting so much, but really chanting the Maha Mritunjaya mantra for the past five months has been quite effective. How everything just disappears. There is only the creative present of now and it's miraculous and beautiful! I'm not so afraid of difficulty. As with my father's war stories and the trauma of my mother, I'm not so avoidant of pain and problems. They are life, and I accept life. I accept the drama but am focused on the transcendent. I participate in the world of duality with strength and courage, tools I picked up from life's trials. That is the hero's journey! But most of the time we are just asleep to our story. Getting conscious of our actions and thoughts and story helps us to re-evaluate, wake up, and get present and powerful.