We human beings have a great need to tell our life stories in a coherent and, we believe, in a complete way. Thus, we like to see that where we are now makes some sense, and we spend a lot of our time internally discussing where we are, justifying our choices and the turns that our life has taken. What we often find when we sit in meditation is that we prefer to go back to our stories rather than just sit there with what is in the present. I know that most of my distractions are me telling – to myself –  the “Karl story” with its usual embellishments and drama. What I fail to notice is that this story is really a fiction as it tends to select  the parts of my current life or history that were painful or that  I have elaborated on – or chosen to magnify – because  I  see them as successes and like the direction they show my life  to be headed in. However, it can help if we see our lives as always a work in progress, and that we can never be sure of the meaning behind certain events until we reach the last chapter. It is good to challenge the notion that our ongoing story needs to be somehow complete to save us from getting trapped in our own stories. This can free us to approach each moment with fresh eyes.

All that we are is the result of what we have thought.

The mind is everything.

What we think we become

The Buddha