What’s Your Story?

Rewriting the personal narratives you’ve been telling yourself for years.

👋 Hey, Bob here! Welcome to this week’s article on Bob Olson Connect. Each week, I write about subjects related to life, metaphysics, and the afterlife. If you’re new here, please subscribe below. For subscribers, I hope you enjoy today’s article.

Photo of the moon by Bob Olson taken last Saturday night.

Twenty years ago, I read a book about a therapist who taught people how to change their stories for positive life transformation. He taught them to rewrite the narratives they repeatedly told themselves. A few years ago, I interviewed Robert Moss, who briefly talked about our ability to change the results of our past stories by revisiting them in our minds and rewriting the ending using our imagination. I also read about a life coaching technique where clients were encouraged to imagine the most favorable outcome of a problem as if they’d taken a magic pill that could make it happen. In many cases, the outcome they imagined ended up really happening.

In every case, these people taught us about the power of our imagination to positively affect our relationships, careers, happiness, and even healing. This weekend, our dear friend Phoebe told Melissa and me about a similar mindset, this time about magic (what some call the occult). Phoebe referred me to a video, which I’ll add below, that teaches how a man with a brilliant mind uses this exercise to help others. He uses guided visualization to walk people through an imagined castle that is precisely their own, and each room of their castle represents a particular aspect of their lives. This visualization teaches people about themselves while offering them a tool for creating change.

In my work facilitating hypnosis to aid in my research, which includes both past-life regression and spirit contact using hypnosis, I’ve found myself explaining to novices who are experiencing it for the first time that there’s a fine line between imagination and intuition. This came from many individuals experiencing a past life but wondering if they were making the story up in their heads.

I asked my regressionist this exact question during my first past-life regression. I realized that while I might have imagined the story of my past life at the beginning, it quickly turned into something I could never have made up on my own. Even better, subsequent research taught me that the details of my past life were in line with historical events, which was not something I knew intellectually.

The more I worked with hypnosis, the more I questioned whether there was any difference between imagination and intuition. I know many psychics and mediums who have learned to trust that whatever images and stories they see in their mind’s eyes are messages from either Universal intelligence or spirit.

I realized that I should be telling my research clients that there is no difference between their imagination and intuition, which is why so many novelists believe the stories they’ve written were channeled through them by some intelligent force.

For a few years, I ghostwrote books for people who had interesting stories but could not write them on their own. It was how I paid my bills while investigating the afterlife. One client was steeped in analyzing the narratives we tell ourselves and how they shape our lives. She explained that we begin this process as children, interpreting our experiences—often erroneously—and then looking for evidence to reinforce our beliefs.

An example would be when a little girl asks her father to look at her artwork on the refrigerator, but he explains that he doesn’t have time. She interprets his action as not loving her. Later, when she asks Daddy to teach her to ride a bike, and again, he doesn’t have time, this reinforces her belief that he doesn’t love her. Now, the girl continuously seeks evidence that “Daddy doesn’t love me” to support her belief. Eventually, she has gathered so much evidence that she’s convinced her father doesn’t love her, and that becomes the narrative she lives by. She might even take it so far as to believe she is unlovable.

How many of us erroneously interpreted our childhood experiences in ways that have negatively affected our lives as adults? Are you on a roller coaster of failed relationships because you (like the little girl) believe you’re unlovable? Have you lived a life of abandoning art projects before they’re complete because you think it’s better to quit than be judged? Are you living below your potential because you believe others will feel poorly if you outshine them? Given the vast experiences that form our beliefs in who we are as human beings, the chances are that each of us is living our lives from false paradigms about ourselves and the world.

I know people who are unable to see their brilliance because their experiences with dyslexia led them to believe they weren’t smart. I know others who were criticized for their writing in elementary school and have since been unable to acknowledge their extraordinary writing ability. I also know people who have convinced themselves that they don’t deserve the luxuries of wealth, so they live their lives in limitation and financial struggle.

What if these stories we’ve been telling ourselves aren’t true? What if we could change our story simply by imagining a new one? My experience has been that recognizing our patterns and tracing them back to similar experiences in our youth is often the beginning of change. In my life, simply bringing the awareness of the root of my negative patterns to my conscious mind usually manifests the change.

You might recall an article I wrote about recognizing why I could not save money. During guided meditation designed to reveal the root of this issue, I saw myself as a boy at three ages. In one memory, I won some money at the racetrack with my father, but my parents had to borrow my winnings to pay some bills. Years later, I sold my drum set to purchase a new one, but my parents had to borrow my drum money before I could buy a new one. In a third instance, a couple of years later, I sold my motorcycle, and my parents again needed to borrow the money to get out from under some overdue bills. Each time, they could never return what they’d borrowed, so I developed the belief that whenever I saved money, something would occur to make my savings go away. And this became my reality.

Thirty years later, every time I saved money, something happened that used up my savings. My car broke down. I needed a dental crown. The dog required emergency veterinary care over the weekend, which cost three times the regular vet expenses. There were always some expensive events that popped up in my life. Finally, following this guided meditation that reminded me of this pattern from my childhood, I saved money for the first time in decades. The subconscious belief playing in my head that “saved money disappears” was now made conscious, and my story changed.

I’m not suggesting that this exercise in personal analysis is easy; I merely suggest it’s possible. Who doesn’t want to break free from the mistaken interpretations of who and what we are that we developed as children? Kids misunderstand things, after all. Maybe Daddy was just really busy. Yes, he should have looked at your artwork on the refrigerator and taught you how to ride a bike, but that was his shortcoming, not yours. Perhaps it’s time to break free of feeling unlovable and realize that you are lovable simply because you were born.

Every human is lovable, brilliant, creative, interesting, fun, and deserving of happiness and abundance. If you don’t see yourself this way, I’m willing to bet that there’s a belief around it that was born in your childhood. Perhaps it’s time to explore this and rewrite the story you’ve been telling yourself.

Thanks for reading my article. I would love to hear from you in the comments.

Love,
Bob

PS, Below is the video that our friend, Phoebe, shared with us, which is free to view. If you wish to take the paid journey into the magic castle, visit here and use the promo code EGYPT2 for 50% off the price.

Bob Olson is the host of Afterlife TV, author of Answers About The Afterlife and The Magic Mala, and creator of the top directory of psychics, mediums, and animal communicators, BestPsychicDirectory.com. This is Bob Olson Connect, where you can read Bob’s articles before they become books.

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