Ep#080 How Our Story Influences Our Health and Happiness

0 (1s):
Welcome to the Soul Science Nutrition Podcast, where you’ll discover that when it comes to your health, you’re so much more powerful than you’ve been led to believe. And now your host, she’s a holistic nutrition and lifestyle coach, chef author, and Yogi, Christine Okezie.

Christine Okezie (23s):
Hello, and welcome to the Soul Science Nutrition Podcast. I’m Christine Okezie. Thanks so much for tuning in. So our minds are storymaking machines all day long. We have an internal narrative about what’s happening in our lives. We constantly go around making meaning of our experiences and while it’s the most basic way we navigate our world, most of the time, we’re not even conscious that we’re doing it. The thing we need to take to heart is that how we are interpreting the world. That is the story that we are making about who we are or what’s happening in our lives has monumental consequences for our wellbeing.

Christine Okezie (1m 2s):
If we’re not aware of the stories we tell ourselves, we can’t understand how they shape our happiness mood, self-esteem relationships, behaviors, and yes, even our physiology, by becoming aware, we can see if our stories are empowering, or if they’re holding us back. Our default internal narrative gives us important clues about what’s going on in our subconscious mind. It tells us about our fears, our wounds, our dreams and desires. Now, unfortunately because our human minds have something called a negativity bias. We tend to focus on the bad stories and get stuck on them.

Christine Okezie (1m 44s):
We have stories about everything. Stories about food, about our body, about money, our childhood, our relationships, our abilities, what we need to be acceptable or successful, et cetera. Here are some really popular ones. I’m not lovable or acceptable as I am. I’m too fat. I don’t have enough time. I don’t deserve to be happy and have what I want. Nothing ever works out for me. I have no willpower. Life is hard. Now over time, we come to believe these flawed yet familiar stories about who we are or what’s going on in our day to day.

Christine Okezie (2m 26s):
We come to see them as truths. Now the recurring theme of these fictional inner narratives is usually lack or some level of disempowerment. When this becomes our dominant vibration, you can be sure that there will be serious friction conflict, and Discontentment in more than one area of our lives because thoughts influence how we feel and what we have visually think will affect how we eventually feel. Our false inner monologue can cause feelings of distress, anxiousness, which have real effects on our physical and mental health.

Christine Okezie (3m 6s):
Just like Dr. Deepak Chopra says every cell in your body is eavesdropping on your thoughts are negative stories affect our emotional resilience. That is our capacity to navigate and bounce back from life’s ups and downs. They limit our ability to see possibility. So they become self-fulfilling. If we have a negative inner dialogue, we will start to act out behaviors and ways of approaching life that make us feel unhappy, unfulfilled, because that’s the subconscious, it loves to be right. Our negative inner dialogues can hinder our growth.

Christine Okezie (3m 50s):
We can stay stuck in a consistently negative view. And then we’ll lack. The curiosity will lack the open-mindedness necessary to learn and evolve. And at the core are disempowering inner stories, distort and obstruct our perception of who we really are. Now, no one can change or rewrite our stories except ourselves. And it’s not about simply putting a positive spin on things. It’s about doing the inner work of cultivating awareness of your inner monologue.

Christine Okezie (4m 30s):
You can start by just noticing the thoughts and emotions that arise throughout the day, without judging reacting or engaging with them. I like to name and note them. Anger is here. Worry is here. I’m going to the worst case scenario C you can simply take a moment even, and observe the physical sensations that are happening in your body. Notice if you’re clenching your jaw, if you’re tensing your shoulders, notice your breathing. All of these are telltales that something’s going on, that isn’t serving you. I like the inquiry.

Christine Okezie (5m 10s):
What is the meaning that I’m making of this situation? Does this interpretation serve me? Is it making me feel empowered or disempowered? Practicing mindfulness can be helpful in cultivating acceptance of your experience instead of labeling it as good or bad. See our feelings, our emotions, no matter how uncomfortable are not who we are. We’re the observers. We’re the awareness underneath our thoughts, emotions, and feelings. We can challenge our negative self-talk and cognitive distortions.

Christine Okezie (5m 52s):
When they arise, we can ask, is this thought a hundred percent true? Or is it just old and familiar? What else could be true? I like to ask, how can I make good use of what’s happening right now? How can I make good use of this difficult experience? What life lessons might be trying to come through in this moment? You can also, when you find that inner critic starting to appear, replace those harsh critical statements with some self-compassion, with some understanding, I like statements like may I accept myself just as I am.

Christine Okezie (6m 34s):
I’m doing the best I can right now. And that’s enough. May I be kind to myself? It’s understandable that I feel this way. See adopting a more empathetic and kind your tone towards ourselves can help change how we feel. Now. It is a conscious and consistent effort to gain this level of skillfulness. For me, that’s why I have so much awe so much respect for the technology of Kundalini, yoga and meditation. It is truly the science of neutralization. It’s, it’s a mind mastery toolbox working at the level of prana.

Christine Okezie (7m 19s):
Our life force, energy, Kundalini, yoga and meditation gives us the power to only entertain the stories that bring us happiness and vitality. See, we work with the mind, the body, the breath, the energy, the entire system, so that our true self becomes the dominant vibration. In our mind, when we work at the pronic level, we balance the internal environment and we are able to direct our mind to more easily move in our day to day experience in the direction of love, compassion and genuine.

Christine Okezie (7m 59s):
Self-confidence remember everything is energy and vibration. So consciously choosing what energy you want to strengthen, what energy you want to bring to your situation. This is how we get to use our storymaking tendencies to our advantage and become masters in our lives. Life includes pain, loss, mistakes, all kinds of challenges, but how miserable your mind is will always be in direct relation to our current state of awareness. We get to flip the script on how we think about and how we react to the events we experience by rewriting our story.

Christine Okezie (8m 48s):
We can develop a mental caliber that we can draw on and even the most difficult circumstances and that my friends is our happy ending. I hope that this has been helpful. And if you did like the podcast, I’d be grateful. If you could leave a rating and review on apple podcast, and if you haven’t already hit the subscribe button, please do. So. It helps me keep the messages out there and growing. Thanks so much for listing my friends and bye for now.