What is Your Story?

Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “We become what we think about all day long.” In other words, we are the story that we tell ourselves. We get to decide either consciously or by default what our story will be. We decide who we are.

You get to choose: are you beautiful or ugly, are you smart or stupid, are you brave or shy? There is great wisdom in Sophia Loren’s statement that, “Nothing makes a woman more beautiful that the belief that she is beautiful.” True beauty shines from within.

So what is your story? Is your story life affirming, helping you recognize your worth, allowing you to grow and reach for your potential? Or is your life story demoralizing, shaming you and increasing feelings of worthlessness or hopelessness.

What might happen if you changed your story? If you changed the things you tell yourself, if you turned self-criticism into support? Pay more attention to the things that you are saying to yourself. Ask yourself if your self-talk is self-empowering or self-defeating. Then chose to change any negative self-talk into positive encouragement.

Not easy you say. Perhaps it is not easy, but it is oh so worth it.

Make two lists. One of all the things you dislike about yourself and another of all the things that you like about yourself. Then promise yourself that for the next two weeks you will refuse to think about anything on the first list and that you will spend at least 5 minutes each day thinking about the things on the second list.

Susan Derry, B.Ed., M.S.Psy., R.P.C.
Professional Counselor & Life Coach
Online counseling
Co-author of Intimate Sex: Manual for Lovemaking, a sex manual for couples