What's the diamond inside you?

I'm finally on the road again in Europe after being grounded for the past two years in Ohio. Returning to familiar spots seems both familiar....and strange. 

On one hand I have the reassuring sense of something known. I know this sight, this smell, this taste, this sense of welcome. And at the same time, the weave of the larger pattern -- the story we all find ourselves in -- has shifted. I am not the same person who came home before the pandemic started. These friends have taken their own challenging journeys.

Things have changed. And yet, we are arriving -- in different stages and with new expectations and questions -- at the same place. We are coming from the "not knowing" into the place of transformation; the place of choosing what comes next.

What comes next depends to a great extend on the story surrounding you as you choose. We tend to live into the story we are already living in. Taking a leap depends on letting go the old story and opening to the new. This can be challenging when you feel stuck and you have only your own energy to go on.

I know this from personal experience. It took me a long time to buy my plane ticket as I rode the waves of inner anxiety. How will it be now? What might happen? Do I still know how to do this? What is my story now? The shift came when I got clear that staying put didn't serve me and it didn't serve the world.

I decided to put my trust in the kernel of story I could feel inside, the one I can't quite see the shape of right now.

Each of us is a multitude of stories, an intersection of all the stories we hold about ourselves and all the stories we swim in, knowing and unknowingly. Each of us is a StoryField. And yet we each have a potential diamond inside -- a story that when polished shows us the many facets of our own brilliance.

Just as it takes an expert to identify a diamond in the rough, and even more expertise to polish it and turn it into a beautiful gem, the same is true with stories. Sometimes we don't know the treasure we're holding because we always see our stories through the lens of personal experience. And sometimes the meaning we make keeps us stuck. 

Being stuck is not only a personal thing. Our ever more connected world means that we feel like we're having an intimate experience of everything that's going on -- and at the moment feeling that tragedy and pain is swamping joy. These storylines are exacerbating the trauma stories we hold individually and collectively, leading to us playing them out over and over.

One way to break the cycle is to work with others Other people can see past the pain to the potential waiting to be activated. Others can reflect how challenges hold the seeds of strength and how experience can be turned into gold. They can help you find and polish the diamond that's hiding in your story. They can buoy you up when the potential feels bigger than you know how to hold.

In the light of other people's listening, you can explore your experiences in a new light and found out what really makes you tick and how your past has led to the new doorway that stands in front of you now. In fact, you may find out that its a different doorway than you expected! New understanding of yourself can power you through it.

You have more brilliance than you know. Let us help you find it!