Your Story has Influence

As a tarot reader, I have witnessed the magic of people unraveling their own stories to rewrite them. 

This is a powerful medicinal practice, and often is a long journey that requires patience and humility and persistence. 

This week, let’s gently take a first step. Our awareness of this aspect of life will help us find more peace as our family stories collide in the US over the Thanksgiving holiday next week.

The vast majority of humans both function and dysfunction from a place of story.

Try to think of it as a neutral. Like with food, some is nourishment and some is sickening. 

This can be conscious and future focused – you set a goal and envision how you will benefit.

Or, conscious and past focused – I am this way because of how I was raised. 

Those are the easier forms of story to adjust. We know what we believe and how it forms us. We can decide to reset our goals or overcome our learned coping mechanisms. 

The unconscious story messages are the ones that I believe we cling to in ways that create conflict and disharmony. 

These beliefs often source from a collective experience like family history and school and movies and parables. They have an underlying message that we don’t directly think about.

Consider these common messages and the issues that stem from them: 

There is a hero and a villain in every situation – If this is true, then I always have to figure out how I am good and others are bad

Situations have a beginning and an end – This makes us wait for a feeling of finality that might never come, leaving us in limbo

Once you commit to loving someone, it’s forever – Even if you grow and they become abusive?

There is only one way to consider right and wrong – If I dedicated my beliefs to a situation that I believed was right, and then other information shows up, my worldview painfully crumbles 

True love starts with immediate attraction – We must always know on a first date that this person is going to be our perfect mate?

Example regarding the true love misnomer: I have been love bombed twice, and they were the worst emotional roller coasters ever. They also mimicked the rom-com story the most.

Is that healthy? No. So I had to do a cord cutting from my desire for that kind of connection. It’s been years, but I still have to be vigilant when a date moves too fast toward my heart. I still want that story, but know it’s not in my best interests.

I learned to replace it with new stories: It might take time to build a connection with the right person. And . . . If someone is my person for life, they will be patient with me from the start. 

We can all share similar unconscious beliefs and have different interpretations of how these messages translate. 

It’s good to have compassion about how we each cling fiercely to our version of our stories, and it’s no small task to pull the threads that untangle us from them

Pull out your journal and a pen:

Think of a movie or story you watched / were told a lot as a kid before you were 10. 

Brain dump all the messages and beliefs that you can see were inherent in that tale, including what you brought to it. 

Choose ONE that you can see has detrimentally impacted your life. 

Consider some experiential evidence of how it is not true.

Write out some examples and then write out counter beliefs that are healthier.

Consider stories that match those beliefs that serve you better. 

Forgive yourself and society for giving you stories that caused disharmony. 

Move into daily practice of catching when that one story belief bumps into you. Let it be a slow process of awareness and change. 

It can be deeply painful to let go of a story that we have linked to our sense of self. Be gentle and kind. 

If you struggle with a loved one who differs from your beliefs, ponder on the stories that brought them here. Notice with curiosity how they are locked into a story that is likely being rehearsed in their world regularly.

Don’t expect to change their stories, as we can only heal our own. Goddess knows I have tried  . . .

For support in unraveling your stories, sign up for a personal tarot reading with me. 

Learn another way to find answers in an intuition coaching session.

Create a story accountability buddy during a Tarot Together session.

Share stories in community when you hire a tarot or palm reader from Portlandia Fortune Tellers.

Have a lovely week, hopefully uniting with loved ones over joyous shared stories as well.

Look Beneath the Surface,

Jenna Lynne Roberts

Present Path Tarot

Portlandia Fortune Tellers