So Much More Than "Just" A Story!

Yes, there are narrative elements to our sense of self, but in a real dimension of reality. Narrativity is simply part of the nature of what being a person is, and saying just a story is used as a means of belittling, trivializing it, and of course having a negative attitude towards it, more accurately this language is used to de-realize it. Taking on this reductionist connotation to "story," and applying it to the entirety of what oneself and others are, is a powerful way to shift your perception and experience, to suddenly experience ontological dis-reality in a radically jarring way that can have lasting consequences, some positive and others extremely negative.

A key to my own unbecoming of “just a story” has been understanding the nature of what is meant by "story," and its synonyms (narrative, language, ideas, concepts, constructs, etc.) in a new way, in which I no longer view any of these as ontologically “false” constructs, but real ones that exist on their own "emergent" level of evolutionary reality - the human psyche. One that is both intangible and real. 

A major element of this shift has been getting over a negative, cynical, attitude towards "the self" and all that I was seeing as “just a story," trivializing as “just X or Y.” That cynical, negatively biased lens is essential in understanding the role of having an agenda behind seeing reality this way, for one. The simple word "just" carries enormous weight and is incredibly powerful in inducing a felt sense of deflation, collapse, shame, and insignificance. The reductionist "just" immediately degrades and undermines, and it works as an effective strategy for invalidating one’s sense of self and everything else tied to the personal and material world that it's applied to in reductionist spirituality. I've chosen to redefine and apply both neutral and positive connotations to everything from story, to constructs, ideas, imagination, etc. For example shifting from relating to the reflective self "imagined" to existing on a psychic or imaginal level, which has helped strip the connotation of dis-reality. Better yet, I've re-embraced language itself as something that is nowhere close to insignificant, and re-discovered on an entirely new level, it's epic evolutionary poignance and utterly precious value. Having lost that for so long when it was just an illusory construct still gives me the chills - not the good kind:(

Yes, I've come to see self reflective thought, etc. taking place on an imaginal psyche-level of reality that is actually at the leading edge of evolution- so you could say “you’re just imagining yourself to be Jessica, she doesn’t really exist” that now so clearly comes from a reductionist lens (and usually an agenda - for example an investment one has in the self being unreal for the relief that can bring, yet later being unable to unsee oneself as just a story because we’ve been so convinced of it and conditioned to see/experience/relate to/define it this way. My experience of this is so very understandable.

Removing a negativity bias towards “story” and “constructs," rather than refuting that our self-concept is constructed, but not JUST a construct. Seeing that what "Jessica" points to is MORE than just a story. I fully acknowledge anad accept that there are narrative components to our experience of self, ideas as building blocks and images too, all real, all interdependent with real internal and external phenomena. This is simply part of the nature of self, however unsettling that can seem from a certain mode of perception that I fully understand and still can slip into sometimes. constructed. I remind myself that all of these have real, powerful impact in extraordinary ways, real outcomes both  positive and negative. I fully see now it’s not wisdom to say constructs, language, etc. are JUST illusions. Ungraspable, but fully existent. And they bring richness, shared experience, connection, meaning, beauty, delight, and it’s are an utterly incredible feat of evolution worthy of reverence and celebration despite the ways they can cause us problems.

Deleting just. Such a small shift in language makes such a world of difference! Makes or breaks YOUR world actually! Note that choosing an attitude shift has to come with the deletion, that's essential to re embracing all that followed "just" as preciously real/really precious.

The shift from reductionsim to an emergent view, has been the MOST powerful key to reviving both the reality of story, imagination, images, thoughts,  ideas, language, and their value, their worthiness of celebration wonder, of being held dear, and even infusing their existence with sacredness.

Yes, first things first, evolutionary emergence view did the unthinkable - truly reviving the reality of all that was once negated, de-realized, reduced to mere illusion or razed to nothingness.

And even more unexpectedly, it breathed preciousness, numinosity and profound significance into them - especially from the perspective of evolution as the process of Being becoming - knowing them as emergent manifestations of that primordial force that allows it to interact with, explore, delight in, heal, love, discover, describe itself!

Shifting into this view can make you WANT all of these things to be real again. Make YOU want to be real again. Re-discovering your worth, your awe-inspiring existence as an emergent level of reality on which the mystery of existence gets to participate in itself, enthusiastically, and in this light, experiencing yourself to really matter, in a whole new breathtakingly bittersweet way!