Do you like bookshops?

I adore them.

Shame I can’t go and lose myself in one right now.

Usually it goes like this. I’m heading to Planet Organic, cotton tote bag rolled up in my pocket (huge bulk), I walk fast. I pass in front of Waterstone and I feel a magnetic attraction to go in.

When I step in, with the entrance door just half a metre behind me, I get struck by the smell of paper. I breathe it in and feel the anticipation of all those stories that are waiting to be read in the wooden shelves. Corridors and corridors of stories.

I like to look at the top ten of the month.

The classic section.

And the covers. Oh I love covers.

And what gets me every time are those little handwritten notes by those who work in the shop, telling about the book in 3 lines. This is when I pick one and buy it.

So many books, all around.

So many stories

So many pages

So many words.

And thousands and thousands of thoughts written down.

Sometimes I imagine our head like one of those 3 floors bookshops.

Words, images and thoughts floating all around, inside.

Some stories are real.
Some are relevant.
And some are only fiction… but we treat them all the same: Real. True. To believe.

Can we chose the stories in our inner library?

Not really.

We can’t even switch the light off. Or the volume at which we read them out loud in our head.

But down there, in the corridors of shelves filled with stories there’s a hidden box. Inside there’s a special switch. The how-we-respond-to-the-stories switch.

This HWRTTS switch needs training, or it won’t work.

Or better, you won’t even know it’s there for you to use it.

  • When we switch is ON, the stories are still there, but instead of reacting to them we choose if to believe them or not.
  • When the switch is OFF, we believe everything is true.

‘You’re not good at giving this presentation. Everybody will laugh at you‘ [ON or OFF?]
‘You need to finish the chocolate spread jar right now, it’s a life or death situation‘ [ON or OFF?]
‘You’ll never be successful, don’t even start‘ [ON or OFF?]

How many times you reacted in ways you later regretted, because you believed your inner stories?

To train your mind to find & use the HWRTTS switch you can:

  • Meditate a few minutes every day.
  • Practice a guided relaxation.
  • Or combine them.

Will you train your mind to find the switch, pop up? I’m going to right now, just after I click send.

To a life to enjoy,

Laura