By Dr. Scott Peck & Shannon Peck
It’s easy to get stuck in your “story.”
Here are some examples:
- I’m in a miserable relationship & can’t escape.
- I was in a miserable relationship that’s over but I still can’t escape the trauma.
- I’m in a decent relationship but we keep repeating negative patterns that are impossible to resolve.
- I was abandoned & can’t escape the hurt.
- I’m stuck in my current job & there’s no way out.
- I can’t seem to make progress on my true life goals.
- I’m so angry politically that I could scream!
Any of these “stories” fit you?
We all get stuck in “stories.” That’s normal. But some stay stuck in their “story” throughout their entire lives. That’s sad.
Being stuck in a “story” is devastating to the soul. It feels hopeless. It is living life in perpetual conflict.
We both know the pain.
Shannon was in an 18-year marriage that was painful & emotionally abusive. Scott was in two previous marriages that were suffocating to his soul.
Between the two of us, we experienced agony for many years.
But we didn’t stay stuck in these stories.
By using her difficult relationship as a catalyst, Shannon’s painful story necessitated her to become a spiritual warrior in her healing practice – for herself, as well as helping others. Who knew!!
Rather than staying stuck in a story called “a miserable marriage,” she allowed the pain & struggle to create a new way of being while still living in the same marriage.
So what happened? Well, after 18 years, her husband left her for another woman. Even though the marriage was terrible, she still felt devastated – like a train wreck. How could this be a solution to her life?
Scott wasn’t doing much better on the relationship front. His first 7-year marriage had ended and now his second 7-year marriage was failing. At one point, he said to his wife, “If we want this relationship to improve, we’re going to have to work at it. Are you willing?” She said “No!”
Well that was a surprise to Scott. But it was the straw that ended the marriage.
So there was Scott, now divorced and alone (and relieved) but convinced that his “story” was “a complete failure in love.”
Yet Scott, like Shannon (who he didn’t know yet) took steps to transcend this story. He realized that his own standards for love needed to rise a lot higher. He decided that he would never enter another relationship where there wasn’t an equal giving of love. He decided he’d rather be single forever than ever again be in a relationship of conflict.
Then we met – & a new “story” of the happiest couple in the universe began to unfold.
What seemed like a story of a ‘train wreck” to Shannon seemed like a story of a “Seak team rescue” to Scott. Shannon’s husband leaving her created the space for us to meet & marry. Who could have guessed?
Because each of us had been working deeply to transcend our “stories,” we met, not as weak, suffering, desperate individuals, but as strong, resilient, soul beings in touch with our inherent identity.
The road to peace in life requires that we move past our “stories” of conflict. We might pray that a relationship improve, or that we meet our love mate exactly how we’ve envisioned, but that might not be your highest immediate destiny.
Soul surprises. Go deeper into your soul and let Soul (rather than you) create the forms of your life.
Soul surprises come much faster when you work at transcending any “story” that has trapped you in conflict. The power to do that is within you – & not dependent on anyone else.
May your heart be free of all suffering & may you live in peace.
If you’d like to learn more about moving past your story into greater peace, join us for our FREE Peace Course, Become a Peace Master. It beings January 28th.