It's All Tangled Up Within Ourselves

Somewhere in the tangles of our story is the answer to everything that moves us.

It may take years to discover. We may need help untying the knots. It may be frightening and at times, we may not want to unravel anything at all.

But the answer is there. Always inside us.

And looking for it is always worth it.

When this truth crosses our path for the first time, it usually does so by way of a cheap inspirational quote.

"You already have everything you need."

Or something similar.

Our resistant mind will come up with a million reasons why that is not true.

"I don't have the money."

"I don't have the looks."

"I don't have the connections."

I used to scoff at that quote, too. And I still do think it is poorly worded. Especially when you are in real need of something tangible like money, a roof over your head, or food.

For the longest time, I didn't see that the quote doesn't relate to anything tangible at all. It relates to our story. It relates to our mind and to how we chose to use it.

Our mind is where everything starts and ends. Every action, every habit, every deed big and small. Every thought, every prayer, and every story comes from our mind. Every anxiety and every bit of joy.

Yes, there is a physical component to our experience, but the story we tell ourselves about it, the interpretation of the physical stimulus, happens in our minds.

Without our minds, there would be no narrative that follows the stimulus.

There would be no "“experience”. Nothing to describe. Nothing to think about.

So, in order to change our experience, we really do have to start with our minds first. And to do that, we need to find the drivers of our story. The narrative we have been following.

Only we can find it somewhere in the debris of our experiences. We're the only ones who can make sense of it all.

Sure, talking to someone helps. Therapy and guidance are powerful tools to examine our stories.

But in the end, the answer doesn't come from outside.

It comes from inside.

From where it's been all along, waiting to be discovered and made sense of.