This is my attempt to use Narnia to explain where I am on my personal journey. Bear with me on this one, and if you have never read The Chronicles of Narnia I suggest you skip this post!
One day you step into a room that has always been there but you were never aware of. A set of circumstances came together such that one day, you find yourself walking into that room. For me, those circumstances were talking to Sandra at Thinking Slimmer about why I felt it wouldn’t work for me.
In that room you spot a wardrobe. It is big and intimidating, but you look behind you and where you have come from is far worse. You take a deep breath and walk into the wardrobe. At first it is dark and weird, but you discover you can keep walking through the wardrobe. You push through even though it is scary but where you have come from is worse. Eventually you discover that the wardrobe leads to a new, unfamiliar world that is both different and exciting. Stepping through wardrobe was making the decision to go and see Trevor, the founder of Cognitive Hypnotherapy
This new world shows you that the place you have come from is not the only way the world has to be. There are other worlds and other ways of living. You meet new and different people who don’t know anything about where you have come from and treat you as the person you present, and judge you by the behaviours you exhibit instead of the “why” behind the way you are. You find it liberating to see that you can be who you choose to be.
You keep glancing back to the where the wardrobe is, and wondering if you should go back. Sometimes you even try it but it’s as if, now you have seen that there is a different world out there, that this old place is twice as scary. You realise you like being whoever you choose to be.
Then one day you meet Aslan. He teaches you how to tap in to your resources. He guides you through the challenges you face day-by-day, to draw on those resources instead of assuming you were defined by where you came from. He teaches you that nothing needs to be now the way it used to be before. This is Trevor
There are days where you struggle. You find you need to constantly draw on Aslan’s guidance over what to do as you are faced with new and unfamiliar situations. Even when not with him, his words echo in your head as you explore what your resources are.
Increasingly you are faced with situations where your new friends come to you for your help. You give it willingly, happy to share in a way you have never been able to before. Thrilled that you can help. There are battles and challenges in this new world, and soon you realise that the lessons you have learnt have given you the strength to lead others through those battles.
You find, over time, you think about the wardrobe less and less.
You find, over time, that you are far more defined by your new behaviours than anything you brought with you from the other world.
And you find, over time, that you no longer seek out Aslan for guidance constantly. You look forward to seeing him but treat his company more as that of a friend than a guide. Appreciating him for his own qualities rather than the lessons you need to learn from him.
One day, as you are out riding, you come across an area of your new world that is familiar. You vaguely recollect that it has meaning but you also remember that it was not a good place to go back to.
Smiling to yourself, you turn away from that place and carry on living your life, surrounded by people you love and living your life the way you choose to live it.
