I love how much power and value there is in stories. Not just listening to them or reading them, but really hearing the hidden messages that we are supposed to hear at precisely that second. There is a feeling you get when you have that ‘OMG’ lightbulb moment and truly realise what the words mean for you personally. I absolutely love it 😊
The last few weeks we have shared the individual and collective journeys of the characters from the Wizard of Oz. Each personality exposing their own perspectives and beliefs.
There were a couple of overarching themes that stood out for me.
The first reinforced my belief that there are no coincidences and that nothing is random. People come into our lives for a season or a lifetime, but they always come into our lives for a reason. Regardless of how long we are together, minutes or years, we are unquestionably changed on some level for having known them and experienced a part of ourselves that we wouldn’t have otherwise. We are impacted by every interaction and even on a sub conscious level these moments and feelings stay filed in our mental basements forever. Now there’s an incentive to make our encounters count!
These meetings and our life experiences can be viewed from two perspectives. The victim or the empowered. As humans, we mostly respond to our ‘perception’ of what happens and not necessarily what actually happens. If we believe other people ‘do’ things to us, we remain the victim. When we look at something that has happened and see it from a place of self-confidence and empowerment, we see it completely differently. Yep, it’s a bitter pill to swallow but think about it.
A man organises a handyman to come into his home to fix some items while he is away on business. When he returns he discovers nothing has been fixed. His first emotional reaction is one of anger followed by sadness (which is the emotion of the state of mind of disappointment).
Why is he angry and sad?
Because someone made a commitment to him that was not fulfilled.
Why did he feel angry and sad about this?
Maybe he felt disrespected and a lack of care shown for his needs and time.
What kind of a person gets disrespected and is not cared for?
Perhaps someone who is perceived as (or feels on some deeper level) unworthy or undeserved.
Ultimately, who was it that felt disrespected and a lack of care for their needs? Not the handyman.
There are a million other reasons that the work may not have been completed but the man’s mind immediately jumped to the worst conclusion. Did this come from a previous pain or negative experience? I don’t imagine this was the first time he had been angry or sad in his life, so is it possible his reaction had nothing to do with the handyman.
Hearing this story caused me to look at aspects of my own life.
How did I feel the last time something didn’t go the way I wanted it to?
Why did I feel the way I did? Do I need to look deeper? What was the real issue here?
If let’s say the man was more in touch with himself and his self-belief was that he was the one person on the planet the most worthy of respect and care, then he would have immediately jumped to any one of the other million reasons that wouldn’t have triggered the negative emotion … but he didn’t.
And so back to saying goodbye to Oz. There were many characters in the movie we have not explored but I am keen to move on. Just before we go, don’t we all have a wicked witch in our lives internal or external? Someone or something or a behaviour that we feel compels us act in a way that can only have a negative outcome?
And for the record, the Wizard was no wiser than any of the travellers. However, he knew one thing, “if you assert, they assume!”.
Who knew that the Wizard accidentally ended up in Oz anyway? In his previous life he was a conman doing magic tricks. One day his air balloon drifted and landed in the Emerald City and he found himself worshipped. As the city had no leader at the time, he took the role upon himself and became Supreme Ruler doing his best to sustain the myth.
The second message is again a reminder that we already have everything we need inside us to be happy. Winnie the Pooh has no more of a brain than the Scarecrow had yet each have a wisdom and a mind that creates their world. Yes, our minds create our world.
“If ever there is tomorrow when we’re not together… There is something you must always remember. You are Braver than you believe, Stronger than you seem, and Smarter than you think. But the most important thing is this, even if we are apart… I’ll always be with you”
Winnie the Pooh.
Much Love Dalya xx 💙