What's your story?

“That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!”
Even when we don’t realize it, that’s how many of us live our lives. The story itself is no big deal. It is what it is. But the sticking to it part implies that we are actually taking it seriously/believing it and that’s where things tend to go awry. Well, actually they tend to go awry whenever we are unaware that our story IS a story. Once we realize it’s just a story we also realize we can just as easily tell a different one.
I love this rather obtuse quote from R.D. Laing - "The range of what we think and do is limited by what we fail to notice. And because we fail to notice that we fail to notice, there is little we can do to change; until we notice how failing to notice shapes our thoughts and deeds."
I’ll give you an example – one of my stories. Technology and I don’t get along. I’ve lived that story for a long time before I realized that I just made it up. If I were to use Byron Katie’s inquiry I would soon discover that it is no more true than it’s opposite. But as long as it is true for me I will seek out supporting evidence and hold it up as proof of the ‘fact’ that technology and I don’t get along. I won’t be able to even see evidence to the contrary. All those instances my computer, Bluetooth, cell phone or printer work well for me do not even exist when I have a glitch, like I did yesterday with my email. Because technology and I don’t get along.
That’s a fairly innocuous story but many are not. Take, for example, “I have a handicap” or “I’m too old, too weak, too uneducated to do what I really want”. Or how about “I can’t tolerate incompetent people” or “I just can’t take it any more” or “My family is high risk for cancer”. Those can be very debilitating and not much fun to live out. And yet, they too are just stories we have created for our own entertainment or to explain or justify some situation or behavior.
From now on, technology is my friend. That’s my story and maybe, just maybe, I’ll stick to it.