After writing yesterday’s rant about the cement works, I realised I had been carrying around a bit of negative self talk about that episode.

Then I had a little epiphany.

One that I can use to rewrite that story.

I didn’t loose that gig because I was stubborn, but because I ran rings around the more expensive facilitator who was running the week. I hadn’t ever thought of that before. She was the one that asked me not to return. Not the clients. They needed something to say to me about not returning. They had also given me the clue about that too. It’s a pity we don’t make more effort to explain things. But it’s so often the case that we omit things to hide the deeper reasons of our actions.

Hmmm… it doesn’t matter what actually happened two decades ago, but it does matter what story I hold in my head. For we are all the product of these stories we hold in our memories. None of them are accurate. They are always just our own accounts of what happened.

Framing them negatively is so unhealthy. Framing them positively is. It’s the basis of Narrative Therapy.

In narrative therapy you rewrite negative stories into positive ones. Not that I am any expert in that at all. Just my limited understanding of it, and adding in my own philosophy and life experience in the matter.

I am sure there are some other self doubts that swim in my memory that need to be rewritten.

Snow in a rainforest. Cradle Mountain. Photograph and text copyright © Len Metcalf 2020