The stories we tell ourselves

I normally tend not to share too much of my own story because....

However, today I had a session with my counsellor that revealed a story that I tell myself about achievement and it related really well to using props in yoga.

Stories that we tell ourselves include our values and expectations of ourselves and others that we have been brought up with or learned along our way through life. They can be positive and life-affirming stories, but for the most part, the ones that stick in our minds, replay over and over again, and interrupt our mental health are negative. For example, you're enjoying some time with friends, the chat is light hearted and fun and you laugh at something one of your friends says and a voice in your head says, 'stop laughing so loud, you're embarrassing'. That internal story makes you self-conscious and you start to edit your responses to your friends even though none of them have ever told you that you're too loud or embarrassing. You have internalised those ideas about yourself from what you have learned about how to behave in public from all of the people and events that have influenced you over your life span. (By the way, you can tell those voices to shut up!)