When the Rubber Hits the Road (aka Practicing What I Preach)

Do you ever find when you give advice about something, you’re often then put into a situation to practice what you preach?

Happens to me all the time.

So, a little while after I posted Getting Still about the fear based stories our minds create and how to filter them with Love to get to the truth, I was confronted with something to practice this new way of being.

Here’s what happened.

Getting Triggered

Although I’m not on Facebook very much, I still get email notices about friend’s activities. Someone had tagged me in a photo, so naturally I got curious and logged in to see what was posted. And, as it usually happens with Facebook, I was lured in to scroll down and see what other people were up to. 

And that’s when I saw a video that triggered me. 

It was posted by someone I used to be close to and in the video, this person was doing an activity that I had asked to do a few times and when I had asked, the answer had always been, “No, not interested.” Yet, now this person had said “Yes” to doing the activity with someone else. 

And up popped a story. It went something like this:

The reason why they never did the activity with me is because I wasn’t worth it. 

I sat there for a while feeling hurt and down about myself.

Then my Getting Still post came to mind. Maybe this thought was just a fear based story–a snake trying to deceive me. So I decided to ask myself the question: 

“Is this story true?” 

Immediately, I heard a voice say, “Yes, of course it is true! Look at that video!” But when I really listened to the voice, it was menacing and almost hissy.  It actually sounded a bit like a snake–if a snake could talk, of course.

Getting Still

So I took a deep breath, got still and quiet. I brought to mind a loving friend. And again, I asked myself the question: 

“Is this story true?” 

And this time, the answer came to me in a tender, calm voice. 

“No, it’s not true.” 

Or maybe what the voice really said was,

“Know it’s not true.”

Upon hearing this gentle, reassuring message, the story vanished. A feeling of calmness came over me and I knew the truth. I could feel it.

Knowing something is true goes much deeper than just saying something it is true. When we know something, it settles in. When we know something, it becomes our way of being.

What I know for sure is that this same lesson will present itself again. The lessons we need to learn always do. And when the rubber hits the road, may the tender, knowing voice be the one I hear. May this knowing settle in deeper and deeper until it becomes my way of being.