It’s easy for our stories to appear to be WHO we are rather than what they truly are. Your stories are disguises.
My book, Love Lies Beneath: How Reclaiming My Soul Through Story Became The Secret To Healing My Heart is available in paperback and as a Kindle at Amazon.
Learn how they lead you back to the Love that Lies Beneath. Bring your Kind Curiosity, be open to the Story Wisdom, and listen to the voice of your Soul.
Transcript
0:02
Welcome to Love Lies Beneath. I’m Zette Harbour. I’m glad to have you here. Do you feel like stress, fear or pain take up way too much of your energy? Have you wondered if you’ll ever be free of that heaviness of your past? Do you long to feel as good on the inside as your life looks on the outside?
0:44
In this podcast, you’ll discover the story of who you really are, and how to set yourself free. Together, we’re going to travel into those wild spaces of our inner landscapes, and dive deeply into the rich soil of our lives, reclaiming Soul through Story and healing our Hearts. My book, Love Lies Beneath is the map. Be sure to subscribe to this podcast so you don’t miss any of this enriching journey. And now, let the adventure begin.
1:42
In Episode Two, we will explore what it is about Story that makes it so powerful that makes us believe that it’s not just a thing, it’s who we are. I’ve been a professional, traditional storyteller for almost 30 years. And for me, what that looked like was immersing myself in folklore from all around the world. What I found there is that these stories that are 1000s of years old, tell what it is to be human. And, of course, the different circumstances in the stories, the environments, the cultural traditions, the names of things even will be different. But what continues to be a thread is, what are those really deep human trials and joys that we all experience.
2:45
And seeing all of that within these folktales really showed me that I could start to look at the stories in my own life in the same way. So rather than believing that it was the way things were, the truth of the universe… For example, when I was about four years old, my parents got divorced. And this was mid 60s. And at that time, it wasn’t uncommon for only one parent to get custody. Of course, I didn’t know any of this at the time. What I did know was that suddenly, seemingly overnight, my father vanished, and with him, his entire family, my grandparents, he had, I think, six brothers and sisters, a number of them had children. It just seemed like this entire tribe of people disappeared from my life in an instant.
3:53
And it also wasn’t unusual not to be able to talk about that kind of loss and grief and pain. Certainly my mother must have felt that moving away and cutting us off from everyone was a good thing. And therefore, why would she imagine that for me, it was deeply, deeply painful. As a result of being left alone with that overwhelming loss and grief, I began to create stories. And those stories started to center around the idea that it must have been me, there must have been something wrong with me or missing or defective in me. I mean, why else would all of those people suddenly decide that I wasn’t worth keeping in their life?
4:45
And that’s a natural thing for a child mind to begin to imagine, is true. So what happened was my mind took information. The fact that all these people were gone. I added my emotions which were deep grief and loss, and fear, and sadness, and pain. And that information plus those emotions became my story. And the way that I was able to manage what was pretty overwhelmingly sad, and confusing for a four or five year old, was to believe that this story was the truth, the truth of who I am. I am not worthy. I am not enough. I do not matter.
5:56
Of course, as an adult, I learned the facts of the situation, which were that my mother made the choice to not allow anyone from my dad’s family to communicate with me and my older sister. So that was a really important piece of information that my child mind did not have. As an adult, I’m able to look back and understand that each adult in that situation made the choice that they thought was the best in that moment.
6:30
And that’s how we can begin to have Story, open doors for us, to allow us to be released to become free of the burdens of our past, the self doubt, the inner criticism, the self loathing, and the reluctance to really nurture and care for ourselves.
7:05
I was in a Facebook group, and someone was talking about how they were struggling to destory their limiting beliefs. This was a phrase that was developed by the leader of the group, Christy Marie Sheldon, and I loved it because destory is an anagram of destroy. By destorying. We are basically taking the batteries out of the Furby so that it will be deactivated and no longer able to turn on without warning in the middle of the night waking us out of a sound sleep, afraid. I saw her post about the struggle she was having to destory. And suddenly, I saw an image and it became another story. And that is Part One Chapter One of my book, Love Lies Beneath.
8:08
I’m going to read it to you now. Part One, The Map, The Story of Stories. I want to tell you something that may surprise you. The stories you have about yourself are disguises. They come from love that’s buried inside, beneath your conscious idea of who you think you are. Within them, you will find the answer to every question you have about your life. You will also discover the healing balm for every wound you have ever endured.
9:03
All of our lives. We have been telling stories about who we are, what has happened to us and what we have done. I believe that at the core of who you are, you are a collection of stories. You arrived here with the right to choose what those stories are. and empowering, inspiring and evolving stories let you see just how many choices you have and how powerful you can be. Let me begin by telling you one of those stories.
9:39
Once upon a time, you were a being of pure love and light, you set out on a journey to a strange and wondrous land. It was everything you had hoped for. However, in order to travel in this new place, you had to cover your being with a variety of disguises. And everyone else around you did the same. The disguises were all so good. Everyone forgot they were only coverings and began to feel, think and act in ways that made them seem even more real. You became so good at your disguises you even convinced yourself.
10:20
Then one day, you heard yourself calling out. It was a quiet voice at first coming from deep inside, the other beings around you played their part in helping you to hear the voice more clearly. It got louder and louder, until you could no longer turn away from it. It hurt to listen to it. And it hurt more to try to ignore it. It was the voice telling you about your disguises. It was telling you about who you really are. But your disguises had become so familiar, even the painful ones that you didn’t want to let go.
11:04
Then one day, you chose to try an experiment. You stopped arguing with the voice and let what it was saying be true for just a moment. Something about it felt right. It felt the way a light feels on a darkened pathway to your home. It was a small bit of light, and you still couldn’t see your home. But something inside you knew it was there. And now you wanted more light and more time to walk on that path. You wanted to find your way home. With each step, a piece of your disguises fell off.
11:45
At first, this felt scary because you could feel things you had been shielded from for a long time. Then the sensations became exhilarating. You also had to rediscover yourself every time, which was wonderful, although sometimes frustrating. Then, as each piece of your disguises dropped off and fell to the wayside. Your story about who you genuinely are felt lighter, pure and more whole. This was exactly why you’d come here in the first place. And now you could remember it all.
12:21
Now you could wear your disguises anytime you wanted to, as they served you in your travels. And now you knew they weren’t real, they were a choice. And you could choose to wear them or release them at any time. Finally, you would never again forget the story of who you truly were a being of pure love and light on a journey in a strange and wondrous land. That was everything you’d hoped for. The Beginning.
13:20
If you are a collection of stories, and if you arrived here with the right to choose what those stories are, then who would you be? If you understood that the beliefs that you have about yourself, particularly the ones that limit you, keep you small, make you feel afraid, make you feel sad, that tell the story of your wounding. If you knew that that was a disguise that could be set down so that the truth of who you are, could be revealed, what would be different in your life?
14:03
And what do you need to bring into your life to support you in releasing these disguises, in shedding those stories? And it can be really tempting to look at our painful stories, those ugly parts of our disguises and hate them or resent them or reject them. And what we’ll find as we go through this podcast is that those stories were born from a place of deep love and that this love understood that you needed to wear that disguise for a time and this love knew that you would reach a point in your life where you are ready to release the disguise and really allow the light, deep within you, the light that burns brightly within you all the time that you would be ready to let that light beam out into the world fully.
15:24
I invite you to bring that kind curiosity with you as you see the stories that you feel right now are painful or limiting. Feel kindness toward the part of you that felt that they were an important piece of your disguise at some time. Be willing to be curious about the love that lies beneath the stories. And as you do, you will begin to see and receive the Story Wisdom. And it is that Story Wisdom that is the key to reclaiming your Soul and healing your Heart.
16:07
I’m glad that you were here today. And I look forward to our journey into this land of story, which is the gateway to those inner wild landscapes, where you will find the richness of who you truly are. Don’t forget to subscribe to this podcast. You don’t want to miss any part of this enriching adventure. I’m Zette Harbour. Go raibh míle maith agat!