The problem with life, is that it gets so darned messy! Even the very sex that bares it, is an incredibly messy act. It is as if to say, If you are alive, things are complicated. Life is such a intricate seeming process at times. There is going to work, and keeping the house clean, maintaining your car, taking care of the kids, body maintenance, and….?????? It just never seems to end, there is so much to attend to. All of these different areas of life cross and intersect with one another, and things can get confusing! Where was I supposed to go today? Do I need to get that paperwork to Stan? Did I even remember to eat breakfast? It is all so demanding! A person can begin to feel overwhelmed on many levels, and sometimes you feel like a puppet to the events going on in your life. This is a grand moment of opportunity! The realization that things are so out of control, suddenly makes you want to make sense of it all, as whereby before, you were getting lost amidst the confusion. We all just do what we are *supposed* to do. We go to work doing things we don’t like; attend schools because we are supposed to; eat dinner at 6:00, because well, it has always been that way; and many such habitual acts we think nothing really of. It is like when we are in a sleeping dream, and we are not consciously aware of what is happening. We stumble about in the dream, and awake thinking what an idiot we were. “If I had been awake, I would have….”. But, we were not awake, and we acted, and reacted like fools, with no will of our own.

There is a thing though called *lucid dreaming*, and it is when we awake inside of a dream, and become conscious. When this occurs, the dreamer will realize s/he is dreaming, and suddenly have conscious control over the dream, and what is going on. One can make monsters disappear, fly to some far away magical land, or manifest your dream home…it is all possible. When a person wakes up in this world, on earth, pretty much the same thing happens. It is as if you suddenly feel in control of your life, and that you realize the world is *your* stage. What happens to you *really* is your choice. Where you go, what you do, who you hang out with…it is all totally in YOUR control. Life is your arena, and it is up to you who populates it, what it looks like, and how you will react to the other character’s lines. What you do will decide how the rest of the cast acts toward you. Most of the actors on th stage of course do not know they are on a stage, and they take it all VERY seriously. Drama’s thrive on ignorance of the stage, as people will go to great degrees to defend their piece of it, and their place upon it. Because of this, everyone is all wrapped up in their own plot lines, and they are all viewing your storyline through the eyes of their own plot. So, if they are angry at the world, and you said something irritable due to an off day, they will probably think to themselves that you hate them. No, it was nothing personal, but to them it became so. This is a pitfall to be avoided, and a way to understand why people often react to you in odd ways. Everyone is on their own stage, relating to someone else’s stage, and things get really messy and confusing. What was the story line again? Was there a reason we were arguing?

Stepping out of your own plot line for a moment can be quite liberating. Here are a view ideas to help break you out of your own storyline, so that you can see clearly your place within it:

• Pick up a set of clothes from a thrift store that are nothing you would ever normally wear. Go to some section of town you have never gone to, or to an event you have never attended. Walk around as if you were someone else, and get into the mindset of the person you are pretending to be. Create a whole storyline around it. “I’m Cindy Phillips from Oceanside, I’m a safe cracker.” lol. Just be creative, and be the person you have imagined. Go out of your way to interact with people as the new you. Watch how people relate to you. How is it different from when you dress and act as the *other* you? This can be an incredibly profound experience.
• Do something different at least once a day. Try an unusual food, dress different, do something odd, treat yourself to something atypical, visit somewhere you would never go, or talk to someone you would never talk to.
• Make a list of everything you are as a person. “I’m a teacher, scientist, Caucasian, son,” and any other category label you seem to fit into. . Make another list of everything you have ever dreamed of being, or doing. Compare the lists, and pick things off of the dream list you would like to try. Do something small toward one of these dreams, and follow it with other small acts. You will be surprised by the outcome.
• Question what you are doing with your life, and why you are doing it. Decide what you WANT to do.
• Be proactive, and direct your life on your stage. If the stage’s of others are greatly interfering with your own, maybe it is time to work at a resolution, or move on. Don’t be a bully, or uncompromising, but be firm in what is really important to you.

These are some first steps toward being master of your own stage. Remember that your stage took a long time to create, and recreating it can take time. Breaking down old stages can be difficult, and even painful, but in the long run it will lead to a much more fulfilling and rewarding life that can be called *your own*.

[tags]self help, personal power, stages, habits, breaking habits, storyline, plot, lockergnome, shadowmyth[/tags]