History is written by winners. It’s basically one side to a story. And when we’re young, we are taught that history is important. So we study history from a young age and we remember the stories as hard based facts. Some stories ignite our passion, some stories don’t even light a spark. But the fact remains that someone wrote these stories. We take them for granted and store them in our brains as actual facts. We start arguments over these stories and we build a belief system around them.
Some characters are praised, some are not and our whole belief about the world we live in coincides with our feelings about history. There are people who grow up hating other people simply because of these stories we read during our history courses. Competing cities, competing countries, the whole world is in a constant battle against each other and most of it is based on information, not on actual events.
Yes of course, there is always a war going on, but most of our beliefs are based on information concerning events that we ourselves did not witness. And that means that these beliefs are someone else’s beliefs.
Someone else wrote history.
And we don’t even really know who that someone is. We can make an estimated assumption of course. The Romans and Egyptians are praised, whereas the Nazi’s are swept under the rug so we can assume that the Nazi’s didn’t write the history books.
During the past decade I have decided that history is information merely based on opinions. And during that same decade I have decided that my own opinions don’t mean anything to me (nor should they to you). I try to have an open mind to every person I meet, regardless of their -or, our joint- history. I have let go of my belief system that stemmed from learning history. I was not there. I don’t actually know what happened and I am not going to condemn anyone based on information that I cannot lead back to any truth.
So what about the history in our own minds? As without, so within.
Our personal history shapes our reality in the same way history shapes nations.
We are reminded daily of all sorts of situations. We get triggered and old stories pop up in our heads. An emotional wave hits us and we act upon it, or we don’t. But who wrote our history? Why are these events popping up and should we blindly trust this information?
I started tracking down my triggers and whenever I do, I notice it is coming from a version of me who no longer exists. Most of the time it is coming from a scared younger version of me. But we react on our triggers as if they are still true to us and need acting upon. The same way we treat the history that is taught to us in school, we treat the history in our heads as leading information.
Maybe it is time we start questioning history, our story and all stories for that matter.
Stories are just stories. Stories are opinions about a certain topic, stored by someone with a pen or a typewriter. We often don’t really know the origin of the story before we react. And there are so many stories, hidden in people’s minds. Some are poisonous opinions, some are victorious opinions, but the fact remains that all stories origin from one person and in most cases we don’t really know that person.
Here is a personal example. I find it hard to spend money on myself. I easily spend money on others but when it comes to myself, I find it hard to spend even a penny. And hidden in that same situation is my ability to spend tons of money on tobacco, weed and alcohol. Just looking at the words I have just written it boggles me.
Where does this story come from? When in my life did I label spending money on myself as a bad thing? And why I am keeping it real? Why am I believing this story over and over again? And is this story true? Is it bad to spend money on yourself?
Who is this person that placed this disinformation in my system? Is it me? It is not. It was me, but the new version of me does not believe this story to be true.
What I am trying to say? Even if you yourself would have written the history books, chances are you would no longer agree to your own information.
Simply because you yourself and the world around you are constantly changing. We are souls on a mission and just like snakes we are supposed to shed our skin. We are supposed to evolve. We are supposed to outgrow our own opinions and our way of seeing the world. Constantly.
Maybe it is time to let go of all the stories in our lives. Past stories that no longer serve us. Stories that create division and hate, jealousy and envy. Mabe it is time we just let them go. We start anew, without stories, only aware of our current situation. What would that do to us and the world we live in? It would leave a conscious people, judging each and every moment on its own. Or maybe there would be no more judging, simply because we are tired of storing disinformation and subjective stories that do not serve us.
Stories tend to keep us stuck in the past. So ask yourself, where do I want to go? Do I want to go forward or stay in the past? If you are like me and you are planning to move ahead, I think it is time to let go of all stories. Because without stories, only awareness remains and maybe awareness is all we need.
“Some of us think holding on makes us strong, but sometimes it is letting go.”
