I Am Not My Story

     While our story may partly make up who we are, we do not have to identify with the past, our story.  Dwelling on and reliving the past, telling it over and over, is not the answer to having happiness.
     Most of us have suppressed unhappiness from our childhood we cannot remember, as well as adult years, but that does not have to define one.  While our childhood, we cannot help, and even some of our adulthood, we cannot help, and even though as Chopra says, "the issues are in the tissues," going back to childhood, it is possible to learn from our early adulthood, and even not so early adulthood, mistakes, to be a better person.
     This does not mean that one should beat oneself up, because that does no good.  The best thing to do, whether you think you are a victim or a horrible person, and others were the victim, unless you are a psychopath, which I doubt, and in that case I cannot help, is to let it go, leave the past behind, 'a closed book,' take what you want and leave the rest, and go forward in the beauty and power of the eternal now.
     The present is like God, omnipotent, omnipresent, infinite, divine, peace, love, and the beyond, beyond, as Meher Baba says in the O' Parvardigar prayer.
     I am not my story.  I do not need to tell every new friend my story, because it does not define who and what I am.  
     I was once playing pool in a bar with a guy, several years ago, and I started telling an anecdote, as we were also drinking and having a good time.  He had a New York accent, and he says, "no stories, I don't wanna hear no stories..."  So I said no more.
     Truthfully, I was only going to tell him about playing pool in Boulder, Colorado in '96 with French people, and trying to speak French, and instead of saying, "je ne suis pas riche," I said, "je ne suis pas cher," but the French man and I had both laughed when I realized what I had said.  He knew I did not mean it.  But, see, I am so caught up in the past I could not resist telling you what 'New York', we'll just call him, would not let me..., lol. 
     Back to all seriousness, have you ever just decided to be present and mindful, eat mindfully, read mindfully, cook mindfully, walk mindfully, without worrying about yesterday, tomorrow, or two hours from now, let alone fifteen minutes from now?  Perhaps, you enjoyed a long hot shower, and were not worrying about getting in the car or going to work, but just enjoyed the hot water against your skin, the shampoo lather massaging your scalp.  
     Sometimes, when I get stressed, I sit down in lotus position, and my back really straight, hands open on my thighs, and I breath deeply in and out, enjoying the present, eternal moment.  With the left hand in your lap, you can use a clean right hand, to close the right nostril, count to four, breathing in, hold both nostrils for six, and breath out eight on the right, then starting over and ending with the exhale on the left nostril.  This is for energy, and you can do the opposite for relaxation, but both relax me, and I usually begin and end on the left nostril.  
     Now, instead of a story, my story, I am just me.  Namaste.