Curiously Questioning Truth

This week’s video is all about listening with an open-heart. I challenge us all to practice listening to others without trying to fix or challenge them. The real challenge is practicing being present to allow others to have their truth while honoring your own truth. I drop a little tidbit about even questioning what we believe to be true (which I go much deeper into below) Let’s all give others the gift of our presence this week and create the space for them to truly be seen and heard. (watch the video for more on this!)

Then this week’s blog, we go inward – with a presence of a curious mind – to sit with the stories we tell ourselves and to notice how those stories shape the way we feel, react and communicate with others.

What if everything we believe to be true was all based and built on assumptions?

Most of what we believe about ourselves, others and the world has been built on stories. Every trigger, emotional reaction, judgment, or fear points us back to a story we’ve internalized – often unconsciously. These stories become the lens through which we interpret life.

So many of our stories are born from one powerful but false foundation: assumption.

And when we aren’t aware of this, these assumptions become truths in our mind and these beliefs end up running the show.

“The biggest assumptions that humans make is that everyone sees life the way we do… We are afraid to be ourselves around others because we think others will judge us and blame us as we do ourselves.” ~ Don Miguel Ruiz

Let that quote sink in.

When we really sit with the stories – especially the ones that get triggered when we take things personally – we start to see the assumptions underneath them. We assume others think like us, feel like us, and see life the way we do. We may assume we can help them when they really just need us to listen. We may assume their words or actions mean something about us. And when we are unaware of this – these assumptions can ignite our pain, which can then lead to creating mental scripts in our mind… scripts that keep us stuck.

Here’s the hard truth:
Most of what we think is “true” about our past, our worth and our relationships… is based on assumptions.

And assumptions are not truth.
They are fear-based guesses, often formed when we were too young or too wounded to know any better.

They are dangerous because they become the foundations of our belief systems. They get passed down generationally. They shape our identity. And they keep us locked in victimhood – believing that our value and peace are at the mercy of what others do or don’t do.

But here’s the empowering news:
We can un-believe these stories.
We can step back, get still, and begin again.

It starts with stillness.

The only way out of the drama of any story is to stop running from it. We must be willing to sit with it – all of it – to feel what it brings up, without judgment or blame.

In silence, we can begin to witness the mind’s narrative without becoming it.

We start to see:

• Where we assumed others should’ve known how we felt
• Where we believed someone’s, action meant we weren’t worthy or good enough.
• Where we handed away our power by keeping ourselves a victim of someone’s else own wounded story, perception & assumptions.

When we sit with the story, and embrace our ego (who has believed all of these assumptions) we begin to soften it. We stop being at war with it. And slowly, we release its grip. This practice over-time softens our ego too. Soft enough to become friends with it.

This week, bring awareness to; how often you assume something

That means:

• How often do you make an assumption about what others think or feel?
• How often do you make an assumption about what someone meant?
• How often do you make an assumption that someone should know what you need (or that you know what they need)?
• How often do you make an assumption that your stories are factual?
• How often do you react to all these assumptions – believing they are true?

Instead, we sit. We sit with truth. We stop the mental chatter in the mind by dropping into our heart-space, become present and open instead to curiosity.
We listen inward. We stay curious.

Sit patiently enough and we will hear the voice of our Soul – that part of us that is behind the human self and the ego-mind.

In this quiet space of the heart, we come back to ourselves.

When the Soul runs the show…

We observe the story without attaching to it.
We feel the emotion without needing to fix it.
We let the pain speak – so it can be heard, seen and eventually released.

Because healing doesn’t happen in the noise of reaction.
It happens in the silence of awareness.

We stop assuming others are supposed to understand us and we begin accepting ourselves, so we can understand ourselves better.

We stop assuming others will meet our needs and we begin meeting them ourselves.

We stop needing others to change and we begin changing the way we show up to life.

Start with a clean slate – be willing to open to the idea that we can’t possibly know the “whole truth”! Truth isn’t discovered outside of ourselves. Because outside of us, are just too many facets of assumptions.

This week’s intention:

With yourself;

• Be Curious
• Curiously observe the stories you tell yourself.
• Sit with silence and listen inward.
• Feel your emotions, without judgement
• Be willing to question and even unlearn everything you know

With others;

• Listen to someone with the presence of an open heart & a curious mind.
• Ask questions to clarify what you are hearing – rather than assume.
• Ask questions to understand versus fix or convince.
• Communicate clearly and honestly.

The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz was a book that changed my life. Not because I read it. But because I practice living it. One moment, one agreement, one curious question at a time. These videos and blogs are as much for me and they are for you – they are reminders for me to stay true to my truths and core values.

Reading a book or blog that resonates is a beautiful start. But if you don’t act on it – if you don’t pause, reflect and choose a new path – it’s just information.

Namaste my friends;
Leslie 🙏🩵
www.wellnessdefined.ca
leslie@wellnessdefined.ca 
📞 780-722-3442