What is the Truth?

We don’t watch our favorite sitcom show or read a novel because of the facts that are pouring out of it. We watch and read based on the drama that surrounds it. In fact, we will listen intently to someone when they are using descriptive words to describe an event they are having or have gone through. It isn’t the circumstance that makes a great plot it is all the thinking about it.   

I like to use the example of a car accident at a busy intersection to show how separating the circumstance from our thinking can help us in creating more awareness in our lives. There will be plenty of different versions of the accident. Driver 1 sees it a certain way, driver 2 sees it this way, and witnesses to the accident will see things from their own perspectives, or “lens” as well.

The only fact or circumstance about the accident is that there was one. Then the circumstance is plain and simple. “Car accident” or it can be a little more detailed than that, the circumstance, “The red car hit the blue car.” The thoughts we have and how we saw it from our lens’ may feel and even look to us as though it is the truth. With having an audience to the accident, I promise you, someone else saw it differently and believes that is the accurate account of the car accident.

As a Life coach that is what I do for my clients. I help them break apart their story and point out the “facts” to their story. I am the on looker, the one outside of the car, a bystander. I show up with Love to all involved. Yet I am there to help my client see their thinking, not your friends’, not your kids’, not your husband’s, but your thinking. What meaning are you personally attaching to their actions?   

Understanding your current circumstance is key when we are wanting to grasp and expand our personal awareness. We all have a story; a way of looking at our life that is made up of snapshots of where we have been and where we are now. Giving power to that story may serve you or hinder you. It is completely on the way you choose to think about it.  Rehashing the same thought about a circumstance might not serve you. But looking at a circumstance through a different perspective of where you are now might, in fact, serve you and help you see more clearly.

Stories are so much more entertaining than the facts. The only time facts are entertaining is when we put what we think they mean on it.  We have thoughts and emotions for a reason and as humans we can love and show compassion in ways that are amazing. Becoming a robot and not having thoughts or emotions is probably not a healthy solution to living life. I want to offer that maybe stepping back and choosing to act vs react to a circumstance might serve you well. It may even help you grow on your life’s journey.

When you find yourself telling a friend, co-worker, or family member a story of something happening in your life, take a step back and truly look at the facts that make up the circumstance. Analyzing your thoughts and looking at them from an objective lens can make a big difference in how you decide to show up.