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In the spirit of the holiday season, Dee and I went to a liquor store to purchase a gift of wine for a friend. There we asked the store owner, a congenial fellow named Ali, for some recommendations. We were pleasantly surprised to find that Ali is a world-class wine expert. He went into fascinating, poetic details about each wine, describing its subtlest nuances and mesmerizing us with stories about the history of each winery, some of which went back over a thousand years. I was rapt.
Finally I commented, “I guess all wines have a story.”
Ali smiled and shook his head. “Not exactly,” he replied. “All good wines have a story.”
His comment got me thinking about the stories we tell. Some stories are worth telling and others
are not worth telling. Some stories empower us and others disempower us. Which of your stories bring you life and which deaden you?
The end of this year might be a good time to decide which stories you want to leave behind and which you would like to take into the new year and amplify. One of the most powerful exercises I have ever done in a seminar was to ask the participants, “What story are you ready to let go of, and what story are you willing to have take its place?” The answers were quite revealing: Participants declared they were ready to let go of their victim and abuse stories; poverty, lack, and struggle; loveless relationships; fear, resistance, and many variations on “poor me.” In their stead, they were ready to tell
new stories of living with conscious intention; relationships that yield reward and joy; abundance and success; trust, flow, and creativity; and “blessed me.”
Every time you tell a story, you reinforce the feelings and experience associated with the story; you amplify the themes in your consciousness; and you increase the chances of a similar story repeating itself in your world. That is quite enough reason to carefully choose the stories you tell.
If you find yourself telling a story that is taking you to a place you would rather not revisit, stop and consider what story might effectively replace it. I patronize a video store that has a computer program that alerts the clerk if I am about to check out a video I
