I’m grateful for ALL my experiences. I can say that with utmost confidence. I am grateful for it ALL. There were some experiences that I didn’t think I would make it through. At the time, there we some I wished I didn’t make it through. There were some I saw as bad, but now I see them as my greatest teachers. I’ve been hurt and I’ve hurt others. I’ve felt fear, lack, separation, grief, rage, anger, shame, frustration, and despair. I’ve also felt love, abundance, peace, happiness, joy, compassion, empathy, forgiveness, and AWE. Each experience teaches me more about what it means to be alive.

People tell me things they can’t do because they have had different experiences. They have told me how they can’t forgive, they can’t live from a loving place, they can’t be grateful, and on and on. My experiences tell me I can forgive, I can live from a loving place, and I can be grateful for it all. What happened in my past doesn’t HAVE to weigh me down in this moment or any future moments if I CHOOSE for it not to. Just like others will make their choice to stay in the energy of fear, lack, and separation, I will choose to rise up in the energy of love, abundance, and peace. I’m no better or less than any other human, I’m just making a choice that is best for me. I will not be the prisoner of my story by holding on to the fear, lack, and separation.

None of us are perfect people with perfect lives. Our experiences allow us to feel all the emotions that are available to us. Knowing these emotions is a connection to our souls and the souls of every person on this planet. When we get beyond our STORIES, we can be present to all the feelings that come with being alive. We can connect to ourselves and others on a much deeper level—the soul level. When we get to experience each other’s souls, no distance and time exists. We become one, the way we were meant to be.

All my experiences helped me find my path home to the soul. My life is filled beyond measure with levels of love, abundance, and peace in the knowing that I can be free as long as I keep choosing to be free. No matter where I live, what I do, what is done to me, no one can ever tell me what I can and cannot be on a SOUL level. My soul is my power source.

I’m grateful for all the humans who have mastered this. If we look throughout history we can find many stories of individuals who managed to live fully and with purpose despite being tortured, raped, starved, and shoved down time and time again. In my studies, I’ve found one common thread through it all, and that is love. Love is the soul’s language. When we want to connect to the soul and to the soul of another, we have to first EXPERIENCE love fully within ourselves. If we don’t, it’s tainted. We will get back what we put out. All the unhealed parts of us will be reflected back to us in others. For me, that in itself was enough reason for me to do the work to get to the place where I let go of the trauma in my stories and transmute them into the energy of love and connection.

Today, I commit to being in gratitude for ALL my experiences. Some experiences are easy to say I’m grateful for and others take work. Sometimes it takes writing letters of forgiveness to myself and others. Sometimes it takes really investigating how I keep my stories of experiences alive. There are times I need help from friends and/or professionals. Whatever the case may be, it’s always worth the work to let go of stories of the past that are keeping me in the energy of fear, lack, and separation. I can’t do that if I’m not willing to look at the experiences life has offered me with a new perspective lens.

Being grateful for all my experiences has helped me to see the the power of the stories we tell ourselves. I’ve seen how they can help and/or destroy relationships with others. I’ve seen how they can encourage or diminish goals and dreams. Whatever we convince ourselves IS, so it is so important to be conscious of the stories we are telling ourselves about our experiences. How I see my own experiences is mine. It doesn’t matter how others view them. I’ve got a couple in your face lessons about this. First was as a rape survivor when people would tell me how I was going to feel and carry my experience with me. If I listened to them, I would still be living as an active victim today. I also got to look at it by living with a narcissist and watching how he used my story against me time after time. When I changed my story, I took his power over me away with it. That was an amazing experience of empowerment. I’m grateful for the experience of being in that relationship and the experience of growing out of that relationship. That is the power of inward journey to the soul. Both experiences empowered me in the best of ways, how can I not be grateful for them?

Do you still have stories that are keeping you prisoner? Do you want to find your freedom from them? If both answers are yes, you just took the first step. One of the things that helps me is to write out the stories I’m telling myself. I look at all the ways the story is keeping me aligned with fear, lack, and separation. Then I look at how holding onto the story is being reflected back to me with any existing chaos in my life. Then I start thinking about better and more productive stories that align me with the energy of love, abundance, and peace instead. The Universe starts working with me to help me release the old and bring in the new. People, books, articles, events, etc. all start showing up to help me find my path to freedom. It’s a process. For deeper wounds, this may take some time with some professional help. There may be some tapping, EMDR, cord-cutting meditations, amongst other things involved. The key is to show up and be open to what is revealed to help you heal and return to the energy of love, abundance, and peace.

With Love, Abundance, and Peace,

©Rachael Wolff 2021