Have you ever noticed how some people in your life can tell such beautiful stories with so much ease? Have you noticed how they remember so many different points of view, how they connect the dots, how they remember facts and figures? I noticed this trait in my teacher, Nithya Shanti. He calls himself a story teller too. Because he is constantly telling us stories, not just any story but stories that have a meaning, real life stories, stories from the Buddha’s time and he does it without really too many gaps while he is talking. He jumps from one story to another like we jump from one step to the other, effortlessly and you at the end of it will wonder if you just heard one big story or a series of stories.

We all tell stories. In fact, our life is one big story right. Everyday we play a small part in this story and then we make stories out of it in our head, we either make a brilliant story or we make a really sad one. But the point is that these are just stories and stories, the ones you make in your head can be changed, can be altered. You may ask me, Why should I do that? Well, you do that so you can tell a powerful story, a very powerful story, a story that will touch many lives, a story that will bring shivers down someones spine, a story that will become legendary. Okay. This doesn’t have to be the only reason but you can change the story if you think that by changing it the way you tell yourself, you will feel a bit better, you will reduce your own suffering, and so that’s a good enough place to start.

My teacher says, even if you touch one life everyday, that’s good enough. Even if you reduce someones burden a little, thats enough. Try your best each day to atleast not add to someones burden or trauma. That should be your only goal. Sometimes, we fail. I do. I sometimes love to create drama in people’s life and so I say stuff that can really hurt you and strangely I don’t feel so bad about it. This is something, I am working on. How to mind my own business. How to not say things to hurt people. Let people figure out their own life. Your job is to listen, no matter who the person is and only give advice if necessary. Staying quiet has helped a lot. I love to stay quiet, so much so these days that everyone around me calls me aloof, self centered, and boring, and old. But it’s okay.

I recently saw an Instagram post that said, the thoughts you carry all day, every second, every minute are taking you away from where you are right now. and so the stories you keep telling yourself each day are not allowing you to be alive in the moment. Your mind is taking you to places you’ve never been and in that process you lose the moment thats right in front of you. So, then stop. Sometimes, tell your mind to stop and these days I use a word, I learnt from one of Pema Chodron’s book. She says, everytime you’re meditating or even just going about your work and you see yourself drifting away with your thoughts, say the word, “Thinking” and I do that. You notice that you are thinking and you stop as you say the word, you realise what you’re doing to yourself. You just notice and as you keep doing over and over again you will slowly try to be completely in the present moment. The present is all you have and so leave the thinking to the thinking.

But tell a powerful story, and so change the story in your head, if you’re telling yourself a not so good one about your life. Change it for yourself. Not for anyone else but just for you and as you do it, you will see a shift in your being, you will see how you shift your thought process, one thought at a time, one moment at a time.

Lots of Love,

Miss Light