A Mindful Perspective
Welcome to my podcast! I'm Nick Levesque, and I'm on a mission to help you navigate life's challenges with a mindful perspective. Join me every week as I dive deep into the realms of mindset, spirituality, and personal growth. Drawing from my own experiences, I want to provide you with tools, strategies, insights, and inspiring stories that will help you go from where you are now, to where you want to be.
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A Mindful Perspective
Rewriting Your Story: How to Change the Narrative of Your Life
Have you ever considered that you hold the pen to your life’s most compelling story? This episode of A Mindful Perspective explores the transformative concept of rewriting your life narrative. Dive into the power of viewing life as a story where you are the author, capable of crafting new chapters that align with your deepest desires. Discover how overcoming challenges and sharing your personal journey can heal you and inspire others, proving that change is within everyone’s reach. Drawing parallels to Viktor Frankl's "Man’s Search for Meaning," we discuss how to reframe negative experiences and challenge limiting beliefs to foster personal growth.
Take actionable steps towards transforming your life story with practical advice on seeking professional help and making intentional changes. Identify current themes in your narrative that aren’t serving you and learn how to align your beliefs and behaviors with your desired outcomes. Whether improving relationships, excelling in your career, or achieving financial goals, this episode offers guidance on adopting new habits and making different choices to write a story you’re proud to share. Embrace your role as the author of your life and create a legacy that resonates with your true self.
Hello everyone and welcome to A Mindful Perspective. I'm your host, nick Levesque, certified Spiritual Life Coach, and I'm here to share insights into my journey of mindfulness and self-discovery. Each week, we'll explore mindset, spirituality and personal growth to help you navigate life's challenges with practical strategies and inspiring stories. Let's dive in. Hey everyone, welcome to another episode of Mindful Perspective. In today's episode, we're going to be talking about rewriting our story and, more specifically, how to change the narrative of our lives, because I think it's very important to be able to change something that we're not liking in our lives and it's important to understand that we have the power to write a new chapter in our story. So let's dive right into today's episode. So, first and foremost, this is what I meant by writing a new chapter in your story, because I'm a firm believer that life is honestly like a story, right. And if you look at human beings from centuries ago, right, like human beings are programmed to understand through story. Right, like this is where all the storytelling comes from and the storytelling is very big for human beings, right. If you look at the countless tales that we have, even that we remember as kids, right, as an example, cinderella and you know all the other stories. The reason we remember those so much is because it's captivating, right. It's moving, it's a story, right, and it's the way the story is told and all these different things. It makes us realize that like wow, okay, like this is so cool, this is very informative, and we keep these little pieces of that story right, even when you're reading a book or watching a movie. It's all storytelling, right. Like we are wired to understand through story. If I give you a paper, that's all statistics, right. Or I have you read a story, you're probably going to remember more towards a story, right. So this, personally, is how I like to view my life as a story, right. And because I'm the author of my story, I truly believe that at any given point in time, I'm able to rewrite my story, right. I'm able to write a new chapter in my story if there's something that I'm not aligned with.
Speaker 1:Everyone has a life story. Our life story is shaped by experiences, our beliefs about ourselves, our beliefs about the world, right. The narratives that we tell ourselves, the stories that we tell ourselves. But these stories aren't set in stone, right. I'm a firm believer that we have the power to rewrite our story and we can turn these challenges into opportunities for growth. Right, and we can create a narrative that really empowers us and makes us live the life that we know that we're meant to be living and is giving us that momentum to really step into our power.
Speaker 1:Right, and to be able to write a story that we will be proud of telling eventually. Right, and that's the whole point about our story as well, is, like, the way I see is like, okay, like, this is my story. Yes, right, like I'm the author of my own story. But because I'm the author of my own story, I would also love to share my story someday as well. Right, and really write a story that I'm proud of and I'm proud of sharing as well, in hopes that inspires and helps other people. Right, so in 20 years from now, for example, what kind of story do I want to give? But, like, what type of story and what kind of story do I want to leave behind? Right, in order to inspire people and help people heal themselves? Right, that's personally my own narrative. Right, for me, that's my goal in life. Right, is to help people heal. Right, it's to help people go from where they are now to where they want to be, and in 20 years time. When I think about this, it's like, hmm, I want to have a good story about myself, right, I want to talk about the challenges that I've overcome and how I've been able to rewrite my story and, you know, write new chapters in my stories. Or, you know, work on things in my story that I didn't like or that I know needed to change. Right, and that's the other thing as well.
Speaker 1:Like, if you go to any seminar or whatever, a lot of people resonate with people telling their stories because they can relate, right, it's like, wow, that person is on stage being vulnerable, they're explaining their story and guess what? The reason we connect so much with that story is exactly that. It's because it's storytelling, right, like, we are humans, we are designed to understand through stories, right, that's my personal belief, in my personal opinion, but I truly believe that that is the case. So when someone else is sharing their story, we tend to listen and we tend to get inspired, right? This is why we have motivational speakers and all these different things.
Speaker 1:I think it's a service to the world to be able to explain your story to other people, because then people get inspired and they're like, wow, if that person was able to go through all that and rewrite their story, then that gives me hope, right, it gives me hope to be able to rewrite my own story. So I hope this makes sense. But really, this is what I mean by the power of rewriting your own story. It's not only for yourself, but it's also you have no idea how much sharing your own story can help someone else that's in need, right, because every person is going through a different issue at a different point in time in their lives, but I can guarantee you that your story that you're sharing, might help more people than you could ever imagine, right? So that's really what I want to really for you to keep in mind in this episode is the power of our own stories and, as the author of our stories, like I was mentioning earlier, okay, we have the capacity and the ability to edit our stories right, to change our lives.
Speaker 1:We have the opportunity to write a new story entirely, right, or, better yet, we can write a specific chapter in our story, because maybe not everything about our story is wrong. Right Doesn't mean that necessarily something is wrong, but we have multiple different scenarios in our stories, in our lives, right? So maybe the specific chapter that we're stuck on is on relationships or finances or whatever, but you can rewrite different chapters in your story which help to rewrite the entire story as it is. I'm a firm believer that we're not in control of what's happened to us and we're not in control of the cards that were dealt as we, you know, as we come into existence. But at a certain point in our life it becomes our responsibility to heal or to work on the things that are causing us trouble, right? So if you have financial issues, you know we have multiple resources in the world to be able to work on these financial issues, right? Obviously, I know you know the world's crazy. Everything is very expensive, but there are ways to make money, there are ways to save money. If you're having issues with yourself dealing with past trauma, then there's a way to be able to grieve and to go through that past trauma right, and to hopefully turn those experiences that you've had into opportunities for growth. These are different things, right, but also it's very important that, as an example, someone with past trauma right, it's important for us to be able to heal with that or from that, because it is our responsibility at a certain point in life. Right, because obviously we want to have a better quality of life for ourselves, but also because we don't want to be unconsciously bleeding or hurting other people, right? So this is why I think it's so, so, so important.
Speaker 1:And there's a beautiful quote by Carl Jung that I love and actually I love it so much that I just recently got it tattooed on me but it says I am not what happened to me, I am what I choose to become right. And I think that quote highlights the power of rewriting our story. Viktor Frankl talks about this in his book as well Man's Search for Meaning, which I highly recommend, and I've talked about this book multiple times in the podcast as well. But at a certain point, we're not in control of a lot of what's happened to us, but we always have a choice and I firmly believe that we always have a choice to want and choose a better life for ourselves. Right?
Speaker 1:Maybe it's hard to see right now. Maybe you're going through a lot and you're like, oh my goodness, you know it's hard to see, but there are multiple different things that we can do to start helping ourselves write that new chapter in our story, right? So, again, I am not what happened to me. I am what I choose to become, and this is something personally that I have seen in my own life and also with clients that I've worked with. Right, I've seen clients go through so much different things, a lot of heavy trauma, and they have this willingness to change right.
Speaker 1:Like they have this willingness because they don't want to be a victim of their past and their trauma and what's happened to them. They want to rewrite their story right, they're not what happened to them, right. Once they start understanding that their traumas and whatever happened in their past is not their fault, they start to see this light right, this true understanding that like, hey, what happened to me was not my fault, right, the cards that I were dealt, not my choosing. Right. But now, as an adult, I want to have a better life. I want to have you know, I want my kids to see that you know, I have a good life and that I'm taking care of myself. I want to be a good example for my kids. All these different things, like, I've heard so many different things. And it's so beautiful, right, because it makes you realize that again, at any point in time, you can choose to write a new chapter in your story, right? So this is why I think it's so important to be talking about this, right, because the stories we tell ourselves shape our reality, right. They influence our decisions, they determine our sense of self-worth, right, and these narratives can either limit us or empower us, right, and we'll talk about that in a second here. But it's just again, it's what we tell ourselves, it's how we talk about ourselves, right? And I want to be very clear about something as well Rewriting your story is about changing your perspective.
Speaker 1:It is not bypassing or spiritual bypassing, right. So let's say, as an example, you know you've had trauma or something happened, okay, and you want a better life for yourself. It's not just saying, oh, it is what it is, and then you're, you know you're going off and you're not healing anything or doing anything like that. Right, that's not rewriting your story. I think that's like taking kind of like a shortcut in your story, right, because you're going to eventually end up back where you are right now. Right, because if you're not healing from it, there's nothing that's going to help you, right, eventually it will come back to haunt you. Is what I'm trying to say. So it's about changing your perspective. So maybe something happened in your past that's influenced your present, that's also influencing your future, obviously, right, because it's kind of like this chain of events.
Speaker 1:But if you can start, if you're working with a coach or a therapist or someone as an example, and then you start to work through that trauma and then you're starting to come to this place of understanding that this wasn't your fault, then it starts to get a bit easier to rewrite that story, right, because now you're changing your perspective, but not from a bypassing perspective. You're changing your perspective from a true place of understanding that what happened to you was not your fault, right? And this is where you can truly begin to start changing your story and you can truly begin to start believing the affirmations that you tell yourself, when you're saying, like you know, I'm deserving of love, or like I am good enough for this, right, you start to truly believe the words that you're saying and the new narratives or new affirmations that you're bringing into your story, because you have a true understanding of what's happened before, right, and again you have a true understanding that it was not your fault, right? So again, rewriting your story is about changing your perspective. It is not a form of bypassing. So for me personally, if I had to kind of summarize this, rewriting your story means that we're trying to find meaning in what's happened. Right, we're trying to change the narrative so it can propel us forward to give ourselves a better future. Right, it can propel us forward to heal our inner child If you know, we had a lot of trauma as a kid. It's propelling us forward to make the right decisions, financially or all these different things. Right, there are so many different ways that we can write a new chapter in our story. Right, it's unlimited, but it's about, for me personally, it's about reframing your narrative, right, it's finding power in our own stories that we can grow and develop and mature, right?
Speaker 1:So, you know, for me personally, my own story, which I've shared before, right, was like when my mom went through cancer all these different things, my own struggles with, you know, being a prisoner of my own mind, all these different things. I was able to find meaning through that, right, and to find meaning through everything that's happened and then kind of go on this path of self-discovery and healing and all these different things. And as I've kind of went through this, obviously it's a shame that my mother had to go through cancer and all these different things. But I learned so much from her as well and I'm not saying that disrespectfully or whatever, but I learned so much from that experience, right, it made me grow so much as a human being as I was able to find meaning in that right, and this is what victor frankl talks about in man's search for meaning, a lot is to be able to find meaning in the opportunities or the challenges that we, that we are going through. Right, whatever the challenge may be and that guy was a psychologist but he went through, you know, the concentration camps and all these different things. So you know I won't go further into that.
Speaker 1:Please read that book. It is so, so good and it definitely gives you that perspective about rewriting your story. But again, I truly believe that if we're able to reframe those experiences, not in a negative, not in a bypassing way, like we talked about earlier, but in a way that we can see like, okay, you know, maybe what was that experience trying to teach me, right? Or what did I learn from that right, to be able to switch that to finding meaning, and I think that's very important, right, and a big concept of rewriting our own stories as well, is understanding the limiting narratives that we have right, like.
Speaker 1:What is stopping us, so you know, is it that you keep telling yourself I'm not good enough, or you always fail, you're too old to change, or you're too old to start the business, or you're not worthy of money? A lot of times, these limiting beliefs that we have can hold us back from achieving our full potential right, and a lot of the reasons sometimes that it's hard to change our story or to rewrite our story is because we're going through a hard time or sometimes we don't believe that we can. We don't believe that we, you know we're worthy of it. We don't believe that you know we're deserving of love or whatever. Maybe, as an example, you've been through multiple heartbreaks and now you're thinking I'm not worthy of love, nobody loves me, all these different things, right, and you're trying to rewrite the new chapter in your story, but it's very hard because you don't believe it right. So this is what I'm saying Sometimes. So this is what I'm saying Sometimes. It's about working through those things to be able to rewrite your own story right.
Speaker 1:Rewriting your own story takes time. It's not just in my personal opinion, it's not just as simple as just sitting down and writing it right, obviously, that's a great exercise, but you also need to take action in doing the changes, right? So, again, you've got money troubles and you don't have a good relationship with money? Then maybe you need to talk to you know a financial consultant or someone of the sort. Right, even the therapist maybe. Right, if you're having trouble with your healing or your trauma, you can work with a coach or a therapist, and then, obviously, they will help you into rewriting your story. Right, and I've seen this with clients that I, you know, I've personally worked with, and it's like wow, like the change that they're going through. Right, they are rewriting a new story for themselves. Right, they are working on a specific chapter, or maybe multiple chapters, but it all comes down to rewriting that entire story, right? So this is why I think it's so, so important.
Speaker 1:So, again, if you're a person that believes you're bad at relationships because of past experiences, right, well, that can lead you to a deep sense of fear of failure. So you're not going to try other relationships. You're not only, you're not going to try pursuing anything else. So, if you're not writing a new chapter in your story, in fact, you're probably blocked in on your hero's journey, right? But again, like any hero, we can always rise above what, whatever it is that's going on, right? So this is really what I want to get into a few more steps here on really how to rewrite our own stories.
Speaker 1:Now, before I get into any steps, there are many different ways you can rewrite a story. Right, take what resonates with you from this. I'm just sharing experiences that I've learned and, personally, how I think you know it works best for me and, honestly, what I've seen from clients as well, right? So just a few tips on how to rewrite our story. So, tip number one is to identify your current narrative, right? So I would encourage you right now, if you want to take a minute to pause, right, you can grab a journal if you want, or you can do this later, but it's to really reflect on the story that you have right now, the story that you're telling yourselves, the story that you're living in.
Speaker 1:Is there a recurring theme in your story? Right? Or you can even ask yourself what are the things that are not working in my story? Okay, so maybe you're having trouble with dating and relationships, right, and that's a chapter in your life that you really want to focus on. Maybe, again, with you, it's financial. Right, you want to start that business, you want to do these different things, but there may be that fear of failure there. There may be that fear of what if this doesn't work out, type of thing. Right? Maybe for you, it's a new career path as well.
Speaker 1:Right, that you're wanting to rewrite the new chapter in your story because you want to start a new job or do something else as an example, right? Personally, I would invite you to reflect on this and also choose one thing to focus on. Right, because I think if you're spreading yourself out too thin, it's hard to work on multiple different things in your life. Right? So try to find a focus, an area in your life where you want to rewrite that story. Right, where you want to write a new chapter in your story. Right, because, like I said earlier, editing your story will change your life and we can always edit the story because we are the author of our own story. So this is what I'm saying this could be done through journaling, it could be done through meditation, right? All these different things, but try to identify what are the recurring themes in your story, right? How do you talk to yourself? Is there something specifically that's you know that you keep telling yourself? Or, again, like I was saying, where are things not working in your story? Right? If you sit down with these two questions, you can actually find out a lot, right? And, like I said, there are so many other different things we can do here, but there's only so much I can put into one episode as well, right? But I think this is a really good start to understand where you're currently at in your story and where you want to go right. Like, where are you right now and where do you want to be.
Speaker 1:Tip number two is to write your new story. Okay, so this is important Now that we've identified from tip number one, what is the current theme going on, what do we keep telling ourselves, right? And what is it that we want to change? What chapter do we really want to focus on right now? Now it's time to rewrite our story. Now it's time to write the new chapter in our story. Okay, because by rewriting a chapter, you are rewriting the whole story, right? So now it's time to really do that.
Speaker 1:And, again, there are many different ways you can do this, but I think first and foremost is to identify the desired outcome, right? So what do you want your life to look like, maybe in a year or five years from now? What beliefs and behaviors align with that vision? And because all of our stories are different and we're all on different paths, I'm just going to throw in a few extra questions here that you can journal on, that you can sit on, that you can contemplate on. But again, what area of my life do I want to excel? What do I want to be remembered for? What is my legacy? Okay, so these are just other really deep questions that you can sit on as you're working through these and trying to identify that desired outcome, that vision for yourself, right, in writing your new story. These are really good questions that you can add into when you're writing your new story.
Speaker 1:And once you start getting a better sense of all this, right, we need to start acting in alignment with that new narrative, right? So this might involve setting new goals and making different choices or stepping out of our comfort zone. Okay, this is a very important part of rewriting our story. Okay, there's no story without action. We need to take action. So what type of person do you need to become in order to write that story?
Speaker 1:Okay, maybe you need to adopt new habits. Maybe you need to let go of certain habits. Maybe you need to seek help right, it's not only habits. Maybe you want to start that healing journey and you don't know where to start. Maybe you pick up a book and you start reading. Maybe you book your first coaching or therapist appointment, as an example, right. But you need to understand that writing a new chapter in your story means nothing if you're not going to take action in order to pursue that right. So action is the most important thing here.
Speaker 1:Okay, and as I'm talking to you guys here, I'm actually just looking at my own story that I wrote, and this is a journaling exercise that you can literally do. You write my old story and then you literally hash out your old story and then you write my new story, okay, and you talk about your new story. You talk about what are the changes that you're going to be making? Where do you want to be in a year or five years from now? As an example, right.
Speaker 1:What type of person do you need to become in order to live the life that you want? So, as an example, okay, a person who has always believed that they're not a leader might rewrite their story to include their potential for leadership. Okay, they might start taking on new challenges, responsibilities or opportunities that align with this new self image and to also get themselves out of their comfort zone to expand on their leadership skills, right. So maybe they're you know, they're wanting to be a leader as their next career opportunity, right? Maybe they're working somewhere and they're like, hmm, I really want to be a leader or a manager or do something. Right, and you need to develop those skills. Well, what are the habits, what are the things that a leader would do? Right, maybe you need to talk to someone that's in that current position to say like, hey, how did I get here? Right, but it can be as simple as that about rewriting that specific chapter in your story.
Speaker 1:This is what I'm saying. Right, it doesn't need to be super overly complicated. Maybe it's just a specific part of your life that's like, hmm, you know, I feel like this needs to change, or I feel like I want better for myself here, right, and you know, when I started the podcast and my coaching that's, you know, that was the thing that I needed to rewrite for myself, right, it was like, okay, like what things and what needs to change for me to be able to really truly step into my power as a coach. And you know, for the podcasting, right, and for me, that was a lot of fear, right Anxiety, fear of failure, fear of all these different things. So I had to really look at that from a different lens and a different perspective and see how those things would benefit my story right, and make my story where I want it to be in 20 years from now. Okay, so, this is really what I mean.
Speaker 1:So step two is not only about writing your new story, and you can literally do that. Like I said, do a journaling exercise Number one your old story, write your old story. Number two you write your new story and then, after that, obviously, is, you take action. Tip number three is about overcoming resistance, because I can guarantee you that, as you're writing your new chapter in your story and you're making new moves and you're doing different things that you've never done before and you're expanding your comfort zone, there will be doubt, there will be a lot of resistance, right, but what you resist persists, right? So at a certain point, I'm a firm believer that you just need to step into it. Right. But again, there's a natural resistance that comes with change.
Speaker 1:Oftentimes, our mind will start saying things like what if I fail? What if I do this? What if all these? What is right? But again, like I keep saying, if you have the time to spend about, what if this happens? What if I fail? What, whatever? Right, you also have the time to contemplate the opposite, right. What if this works out? What if this goes better than I ever imagined? What if this next move is literally what I need to build my dream life? Right? So, obviously, doubts and old beliefs may resurface, right, but it's about understanding that you're doing this for a better quality of life, right.
Speaker 1:So, even when these old doubts and beliefs resurface, right, it's normal, it's part of the process, right, but it's about that persistence and that consistency in the face of our challenges. And obviously, you don't have to go through this alone. Right, support systems are the best thing that you can have, right. So support from your friends, mentors, coach, uh, therapists, whatever, who, whoever you're working with, they can really help you in writing that new chapter in your story. And a big thing that really helped me and, you know, a big thing that helps my clients as well is accountability. Right, it's why I do my coaching the way that I do. It's why my clients have access to me and are able to text me, and sometimes it's just little messages hey, how are you and how you know? How's the goals this week? How are you reading this week? How are you sleeping this week? All these different things. Right, it's about the accountability.
Speaker 1:The accountability is so, so, so important because when we're making these new changes, these new moves right, like I said, there's so much unfamiliarity. Right, there's so much uncertainty and oftentimes is we might not believe in ourselves fully. Right, but sometimes just having someone else that truly believes in us can truly help us in writing our new story, because our nervous system will always choose a familiar hell over an unfamiliar heaven. Okay, and that's exactly how it sounds like. We will go back to default. We will go back to familiar, even though it's killing us inside, because it's comfortable, right, because we don't want to deal with what we don't know. We don't want to deal with what we don't know we don't want to deal with. Oh, I don't know what's going to happen if I do this. I don't know, so just let me stay here, let me shrink myself so that I don't hurt myself.
Speaker 1:Essentially, right, the protection mechanism is completely fine, but, again, like I said, there's so much resistance that can come up from this, so it's important to be able to work with someone as those resistance comes up right and to work through those things as you're writing your new story. Right, and I'm going to say honestly, I truly believe that in order to write a new story, you need good support, right, I'm not saying you can't do it on your own, right, obviously, I've done stuff on my own as well. But what I'm saying is that having that support system, humans are meant to interact, humans are meant to connect, humans are meant to share our stories, and that's a big part of healing as well, right, especially if someone's going through past trauma and such. There's a reason we have AAs and all these different things. Right, for alcoholics, for drugs, all these different things.
Speaker 1:Telling our story and sharing our story is one of the most healing things that we can do, right, obviously, that's, you know, included with other things. Right, obviously, that's, you know, included with other things. Right, other modalities, other things that we're doing. But talking about our story and sharing our story not only helps others, but helps us heal as well. So, that being said, that's all I've got for you guys on today's episode. If you did like the episode, please feel free to leave a comment or review. Share it. Um, it really helps bring awareness to what I'm trying to do, which is really kind of, you know, spread this podcast on a broader scale to really help people, um, just navigate everyday life challenges. So, again, with that being said, I hope you have a good week and I will catch you guys next week. You.
