Day 16: Story is a powerful perceptual filter.

It is so potent a filter that the stories we tell ourselves about who we are become the four walls of identity. Or stories can become a way through to our own greatness.

For example. I can tell the story of my life as if I am a victim of circumstance or a victor over circumstance. I can tell a story where my mistakes are learnings and my failures are tests or challenges. The way we story our life is the frame that holds it–and potentially chains it as well.

A powerful way to reframe your life story to a version that empowers you toward the magic of your being, is to create a short fairytale version. Fairytales by nature elevate our life to an archetypal level that resonates with our deep unconscious mind and collective consciousness of all of humanity.

In creating a fairytale version we can open ourselves up to the greatness we truly are. It won’t matter if you cast yourself as an evil troll or ugly frog because the very nature of fairy stories is they are transformative and magical.  That frog becomes a prince. The troll becomes an ally for good when given a chance to redeem himself.

Assignment: 

Find a quiet place to do this with at least a half hour of free time.

Start your fairytale of your life with Once upon a time. 

End your story with: And xx lived happily ever after. 

Don’t think, just speak it or write it playfully. You can’t do this wrong. 

Reminder: This is NOT a big deal where you have to take a writers workshop or retreat for two days to craft a story. This is best done is free-associative way where you do NOT think it out but rather just let your words flow — you can record yourself on a voice recorder or if you like to write it out, I suggest trying longhand instead of on your keyboard. There is something about holding a pen to paper that harnesses the creative aspect of your brain.

The story you come up with in this playful assignment is not set in stone. In fact, we will come back to this story seven days from now to revise it in the light of exercises between now and then. Do do not hold back because you think you need to get it perfect. And this is not a writing assignment, it’s a storytelling one. Please don’t fixate on punctuation or grammar!

Here is my version. This took me ten minutes to create (writing fast with no thinking allowed!)

Once upon a time a magical fairy princess named Arielle was born into a family of humans. She loved her human family but they didn’t seem to understand her, not one bit. She knew from an early age that the air was made of light, that rainbows were bridges to other kingdoms and that just because her eyes could not see something it did not mean that something was not there. 

One day, while waking in the woods near her home, she stumbled upon a small run-down wooden house that seemed no bigger than a tool shed. It was tucked under a giant tree beside a flowing stream. As she got closer, she saw the door was made of gold, with a jewelled knocker made from rubies and diamonds. 

She knew she had to knock. Rap, rap, rap went the jewelled door knocker in her trembling hand. What if there was a crazy person living here? Or worse, an evil witch?

The door swung inward.

Standing before her was a creature made of light, a gowned women it seemed, but she was glowing with all the colors of the rainbow. The woman bowed and said, “Come in, I’ve been expecting you.” 

Once inside, Arielle looked about in amazement. She was not in a small shed, but rather in a grand marble hall with forty foot ceilings and stained glass windows through which light cast rainbow prisms upon the white stone floors. It was dazzling to look at. 

The woman of rainbow light smiled. “You’ve come to the great hall of mages. We have waited for you. We have a gift for you.”Then she knelt down to the fairy princess and in her hand she held out a wand. It was made of the finest hazelwood, polished to a sheen, and encrusted with rubies. 

“What do I do with it?” the fairy princess asked. She had not yet taken the wand. She wanted to know first what was the nature of this gift. “What is this for?” she implored.

“It is a wand made for only you and it’s purpose is to spread true magic though the land of humans. To show them that magic is their birthright as sparks of divine light. But you will do nothing with it until you are 49. Keep it safe. Hide it from those who would not understand.”

“That is such a long time to wait,” Arielle said. “Why can’t I use it now?”

“Because you are not ready. You do not yet remember who you really are. The one this wand was made for is the Remembered Self. In the years to come, all of your success and failures, heartbreaks and celebrations, loves and losses, all of it is to wake you up to the Self this wand is made for.”

So the fairy princess took the wand back to her human home and buried it in a secret garden until the time came to find it again. And when she was 49—after her mother father and mother had died, after she had borne her children into the world, and after she had learned the meaning of loss, grief, love and laugher—she returned to that secret garden. 

Now, the wand fit her hand perfectly. As she held it, a light hummed through her heart and into the wood. The wand was awake. And so was she. 

There was good to do in the world. There was magic to share. And she lived happily ever after, taking magic across the land and waking people up to the magic of their true being. 

—

That was a fifteen minute write up…I did not stop to think, I just let it pour out.

Your turn! Please share with us on our private FB group your story. We’d love to hear it.