Rising above the drama and be!

A few years ago I was doing a workshop in Tucson. At one point we all chose one thing we would commit to change in our lives. I said that I would "RISE ABOVE THE DRAMA OF MY LIFE". That truly is a tall order and easier said than done...But, stubborn as I am; I'm not giving up. Because I have learned that this is the ticket to my freedom. In order to rise above the drama I have to let it go, which means I have to let go of my attachment to my story; the emotional attachment to my history. I need to do the work to heal my emotional wounds so that when I encounter my triggers (and they do keep coming), they don't stick. I thought that I needed to forget my story, but that really is not possible, being human as we are. What it does mean is to release emotional attachment to the past, and to know that the past is now just a story that I keep allowing myself to be trapped by. If I keep remembering the events as things that happened to me or were done to me I allow myself to keep a victim mentality, whereby I give my power away to whomever my story involves. Having lived most of my life being other oriented and taking care of everyone else's needs before my own, I am now learning that taking care of me first starts by owning my past, my experiences-my history. I am taking my power back, learning to love myself by letting go of my past. The emotional weight is like a heavy pack carried on my back, and as I release it I truly feel the weight lifting. There are teachings which say that by healing oneself we also heal past and future generations. It means that I am healing those close to me by letting go of my past-my story; slowly and gently healing myself. Now, that is cool!!! Doing personal work is truly amazing-hard, but so worth the effort.
As I take back my power I learn that I no longer need to justify myself to others or to have other people's approval, sympathy or support in order to be ok with myself, my situation, my decisions and my actions. I, and everyone else too, are good enough, worthy of great things in our lives, not because of what we do, who we know, were we come from, what we look like or what we have, but simply because of who we are-all lovable human beings. This too is work in progress, but hey, I'm ok with that!!!

Remember "BE, DO, HAVE." "Be the change you wish to see in this world" is a great phrase that I keep reminding myself of, and when I want other people to be different, I remind myself that I can start by being different myself. Everything begins and ends with me. If all we focus on is what we do, and not who we are, we may come to the end of our lives wondering how we got there, not having lived according to our inner values and passions. I want to be my own change and look back at my life, proud of my journey. Who we are is and will always be more important than what we do. The journey inward is the hardest and most amazing trip of our lives, and truly the most important one. It will help us get on the right track for us, and that to me is great motivation, as I want to live a vibrant life full of passion and joy!!!

God grant me the serenity to accept the people I cannot change, the courage to change the one I can, and the wisdom to know it's me. ~Author unknown, variation of an excerpt from "The Serenity Prayer" by Reinhold Neibuhr