Name the Story, Let It Go

Hi, and welcome to your Daily Mindfulness. Today I'd like to talk about the challenge of letting go of our sticky mental stories. So during a meditation one morning recently, I had this familiar experience where I lost my focus on my breathing and I got caught up in thinking. And it was the same story that had been going through my mind for weeks and weeks and weeks. I'd had a difficult situation in my life where I didn't handle a particular conversation as well as I would've liked to.

And so my mind just kept going back to this situation and replaying all the things I wish I had done better, said better. You know, everything I should have done more skillfully. And sometimes the stories were just an absolute shame fest where my mind was just berating me for being so unmindful and reactive. I wonder if you can relate to ever having a sticky story like this, that just keeps going around and, and around in your mind. It's really easy to get swept away by these kinds of unhelpful stories in the mind.

Like a good TV show, we just become completely engrossed in this inner narrative and therefore we kind of get pulled into all the inner turmoil and turbulence and negativity that they can whip up. But with awareness, we can gently let go of the story and bring ourselves back to the peace and stability of the present moment. One really great way to do that is to give your sticky story a name. Like for me, I named my sticky story that you should've-would've-could've story. So I would say to myself mentally, ah, here's the should've-would've-could've story again.

My friend who worries all the time about her partner leaving her, calls her story, the he won't stay story. So if she catches herself thinking that story, she says, ah, here's the he won't stay story again. I see you story. So if your mind tells you you're not good enough. You could say to yourself, Oh, here's the not good enough story again.

Or if your mind worries a lot, you could say, ah, here's the what if story again? So you might like to have some fun with this and give you a sticky story, a kind of humorous or playful name. Have some fun with this because by naming your story in this way, you're dis identifying from it and you take the power out of it so that it no longer triggers you. It no longer pulls you around so much. So this is something that we can use both in our meditation practice and as we're going about daily life. So this is my invitation for you today and ongoing ,to see if you can name your sticky stories and then let them go.

Because by learning to let go of those storylines you'll experience a sense of freedom, lightness and ease, not only in your mind, but also in your relationships and your whole life. So thank you for doing this inner work and for being here with us. And now let's continue this practice of naming and unhooking from our stories in today's meditation.