Drop the Story!

One of the first practices/lessons I heard when I started learning about Buddhism was "drop the story".

The "story" is referring to the ones we tell ourselves that start with one thought about one specific event (or situation, conversation, etc.) that then manifests itself in to this big elaborate story that is entirely in our head.

For me, it's alot of the "what if..." scenarios and over-analyzing the outcomes of situations.  Another scenario is what I tend to think of as day-dreaming... something sparks a thought, a memory, a fantasy... and all of sudden I am lost in that thought and it is consuming all of my mental capacity in that moment.  So I'll be driving (usually to work, where I am on auto-pilot anyways), in a meeting, or just home, wherever... and my mind is just ALL over the place... but certainly not present in the moment.  And it's because of the damn stories!

So once I started reading more about mindfulness, meditation and Buddhism and the "drop the story" theme was pretty omnipresent, I realized quickly that I would very likely benefit from practicing it.

I am really starting to understand how these stories impact how we handle situations in life and even how we comprehend situations.  We get so caught up in the story we create, we lose sight of what actually IS.  It then ends up impacting how we handle similar events in the future and ultimately prevents us from being present and experiencing life as it IS.

I came across a great talk by Brene Brown that speaks to the power of vulnerability but it ultimately boils down to the same theme - "drop the story!"