What If...

What if what we believe is real,  isn't the whole truth? What if what we've been taught was someone else's ideas, ideals and version of the truth?  What if the reality we perceive is based on an agenda that is not in our Highest Good? What if ...

Last month, I talked about the Lion from the Wizard of Oz where there was someone hidden behind the curtain pulling the strings and presenting a version of reality that wasn't totally true.  Sometimes, in our lives – the person behind the curtain is ourselves locked down into old patterns, beliefs and ways of being that may comfort us but don't compel us to live more authentically. Opening this conversation is not about blaming or shaming, it's about the potential that lies beyond what we think we already know!  It's about opening our hearts and minds to a new way of being!

I began questioning a lot about life many years ago.  The things that I'd been taught by my family, friends and teachers had been taken in and assimilated into a world view that made sense of all the pieces I knew at that time.  And to be fair, I trust that all those who taught me, fully believed what they had imparted, and I'm grateful.  

Then something would happen and turn my world upside down.  It didn't fit into the contained life view I had acquired and protected.  Something was wrong. There was a dissonance. No one seemed to be able to answer the why.  In fact, most of the time it was 'swept away' and not discussed, perhaps because it didn't fit into a neat and tidy box.  I was perplexed.

I began to ask more and more questions.  I was on a curiosity quest for answers I didn't know existed.  I quickly learned when to conform and not 'rock the boat' too much and when it seemed safe to ask the bigger questions.  What if what I believed about the world was not the whole story but someone's version of it – based on their filters, history and beliefs?  WOW... what an expansive concept!

As I entered this realm and broached these ideas and thoughts, it was scary for me.  It felt difficult and at times disrespectful to let go of something that I had clung to, that I had shaped my life around and that had given me a safe, stable container in which to live.  Not to mention the discomfort it spread to those in my life when I challenged their ingrained belief systems.

'Question everything!', my friend says.  I love this. Can I be in the not-knowing and be willing to ask, does this feel right to me?  Does it resonate for me today? Is this something that once worked, has served it's purpose and I now can learn from it and move into a bigger perspective that is different?  Can I let go of the obligation energy to carry something that is not my truth?

To be honest, I flow back and forth.  At times, I close my eyes and let things be just as they have always been & others, I clear out the old cob webs, moving slowly from a zone of comfort to something that has no limits – no container and a vast potential.  It's a dance.... it's easy at times and so frustrating at times. I am willing to be with it all as I learn, grow, shift and heal myself and my life. I will continue to question.

What about you?  Can you question what you believe (it doesn't mean you give up your beliefs, it means you get clear and really sure of what guides your life).

Can you allow yourself space to consider a different version that feels unfamiliar?

Can you become curious in your life, your relationships, your beliefs, knowing you get to choose?

Can you consider something new and not defend the old ways simply because they are known?

WHAT IF ...