What’s in the Box?

Once you open the lid on the box of awareness, you can’t close it again. It’s not like ‘The Matrix’ where you get a glimpse and then get a choice, one option of which is the choice to go back to sleep. It doesn’t work like that. In fact, it’s pretty much the opposite. In order to get the “glimpse” we have to open the box.

First, though, we get a nudge to want a glimpse, which requires waking up. We become aware of something. For everybody the catalyst is different. Sometimes it’s health-related, sometimes it’s a life event, or sometimes it’s a subtle nagging from your subconscious and nothing more. There’s always a catalyst, and it’s usually that moment in time that stirred you just enough to ask a simple question: Why?

Why… are things like this?
Why… am I feeling this way?
Why… can’t I make progress?

Once that’s happened, it’s usually followed by the thought: There must be another way.

Enter: the Box.

Once you see the box, you can never un-see it (this is where ‘The Matrix’ reference comes into play). You can’t choose to forget you’ve seen the box. The Box of Possibility lies before you, and it’s filled with your story and your identity.

The box will never go away again, even if you push it aside or store it in the attic-like recesses of your mind for months or years. You will always know it’s there, asking the question “Why…?” and answering it with, “There must be another way.” Furthermore, the longer you avoid the box once you’ve seen it, the more difficult life can become.

Eventually, we all open the box. (Seriously, we all do in the end. Curiosity is an ally here, even if it doesn’t feel like it at the time.) And, once we’ve opened the box, we can never put the lid back on. In fact, opening it pretty much destroys the lid rendering it useless.

So, what’s in this Box of Possibility?

All your hopes and fears, your dreams and desires, your goals and failures. It’s filled with the story of your life, or lives. (And yes, One Direction just came streaming into my consciousness. Sigh – I love that song!)

Inside the Box is everything you are and everything you tell yourself you are, and these can be very different. One is your identity and the other your story. It’s when we identify more with our stories that life becomes unmanageable, which is often what leads us to the Box. It’s only when we begin to unpack the box, sift through its contents and then choose what’s relevant, that we can start living a life in greater alignment with our values and our authentic self.

So, don’t be afraid of the Box! It may look and feel threatening, but at its core it’s a gift. A gift of immeasurable rewards and possibility… and who wouldn’t want to open that?! 🙂

Happy unpacking!

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