#HALCBOOK The Blog: Why Would You Want To Tell THAT Story?
I haven’t truly blogged since I lived in Qatar, but I’ve had so many questions about what’s happening with the book tour I decided to commemorate the process. (FYI, during the tour #halcbook Tweets* get you a discount on your book.) For my first update I want to tackle a big question. Why did I write a book when every day I tell my yoga students they need to drop the story about what’s happening?
I struggled with this for a while. Isn’t all this storytelling creating more drama? Until I realized what I was up against. Everything that happens to us gets stored in our bodies, and if it’s negative information, we are hard-wired to hang onto it to protect from danger. Road rage is a great example because the actual danger is so clear. When I first started riding my bike in New York City I would sometimes race after cars that cut me off just to give them a piece of my mind. Sometimes I still flip the bird, but WOW, has my response changed. Once I was riding in the car with a friend and someone cut her off and she went ballistic. I suggested that maybe the driver just hadn’t seen her. She turned to me and asked, “why do you always take everyone else’s side?”
If it’s hysterical, it’s historical .
By the way, I’m not a fan of the word “hysterical,” nevertheless I find this phrase really helpful. And it also brings me back to the idea of knowing my story. I don’t like the word “hysterical” because of its historic meaning — a medical condition thought to be particular to women and caused by disturbances of the uterus – and love from Freud. But it’s more important to me to realize that my reactions to people, places and things come from my egoic map of the world, which is really tiny. I feel true freedom, true liberation when I can let go of my hidebound ideas and respond in a better way. It allows me to look at information differently.
A popular Buddhist sentiment is “real but not true.” I don’t find that helpful because, well, I kinda react to it. Which is especially difficult if I’m already in a reactive situation. So I’ve modified it to work for me.
Real but not useful.
So yes, there’s danger when I’m riding in New York City. But who looks to be in the wrong when she races madly after a cab? Could this even cause said cabbie to take aim the next time he sees a cyclist?
Own your story, so it doesn’t own you
If you know your story, it can’t hold you hostage. And when you hear a story you can relate to, the feeling is sublime. So ignoring our own stories is not useful. And not sharing our stories is selfish. So that’s why I keep writing, and keep telling, and keep LISTENING.
*halcbook is the acronym for Hello American Lady Creature. Plus the word book. Because halc was taken. I KNOW.
