I recently watched an interview with David Byrne, the lead singer of the Talking Heads.The interview discusses a production that he created called Theater of Mindswhich is an immersive journey inside how we see and create our worlds.
From the interview:
…..the show tells a story about how over time our identities are malleable and how we all have the capacity to change.
Anderson Cooper: I like the idea that you can change your story. You can change the narrative.
David Byrne:It would be a horrible world if people never changed for their entire life. If they were-- they were an angry person, or upset person, or depressed person and it's, like, that's your fate. But that's not true.
This got me thinking about my work in the treatment room. How the way we talk about ourselves, can often be limiting to achieving our health goals. We hear ourselves say these statements to ourselves, and hear our friends and family say them as well -"I am this way", "I am not that way ", "Oh, I could never be that way", "oh I am just not like that", "I could never do that only people who are ____ can do that".
What if we changed the story of our life and what we say about who we are?
When I was in acupuncture school, we had an exercise we were asked to do called, "the alternate role”. We were asked to choose a character from a movie or show that was the opposite of us. Now, granted there was acting going on to become these “alternate roles”, but it allowed each of us to see that we could create ourselves differently and newly. In a sense, we made it all up and we could make up anything we wanted ourselves to be.
What would happen to you? If you noticed when in life you stopped yourself from doing something and told yourself that you just aren’t that type of person? How does that limit you from achieving your goals? Or, what impact does it have on your joy and fulfillment of living each day to the fullest? Do you think it has an impact on your physical body as well?
Notice where you are stopping yourself because of this fixed conversation that you are a certain way and cannot be any other way.
Try a few of these practices in the next week and see what happens in your body and in your life.
Wear a color that you would never wear.
Drive to work a different route
Listen to music that you do not normally listen to
If you take a shower in the morning, take one at night
If you eat meat, eat vegetarian
If you're a perfectionist, make mistakes
