The cast of characters is well known to you – the evil stepmother, the emotionally distant father, the ash covered star, jealous stepsisters and the lost prince. The tale includes magical creatures, synchronicities and arduous journeys.
Framing this story to reap benefit in your life starts with identifying the voices within you. Within your psyche are all these characters in various forms. Depending on which one you are allowing to direct your life is crucial to changing the outcome of the plot. Are you letting an evil stepmother, or highly negative voice, rule your world? Does her shrill and selfish negativity cause you to shrink back from the very creativity that would give you joy? When you think about stepping out on even the smallest joyful adventure, does that caustic, mean voice send you back to your sweeping?
How about the absent father figure? Have you ever wondered what happens to him in Cinderella? Where is he when his natural born daughter is being abused by the new “love” of his life? How is it that he is not there for his daughter? Does the sight of her so remind him of his lost first love that he can’t stand to be around her? And have you vacated your life? Is the void of your lost dreams and aspirations so dark you’ve vacated the rest of your life? If the overarching perspective in your life is the one of the masculine gone AWOL, then changing that point of view will change your life.
How about Cinderella herself? When you’ve watched her scrubbing yet another floor, do you ever wonder what is stopping her from walking out the door? Or standing up for herself? What is she thinking? Here is a grown or nearly grown woman, allowing herself to be pushed around by the demands of her life. Ok now I know there is not one of you out there that can relate to this, right? None of you forget about your own needs, wants and desires and trade in all your time and energy to the service of those around you! Of course, we go through periods where the balance of energy swings to the service of others. The important thing is to recognize we are in our “Cinderella ashes” space and give ourselves permission to move to “Cinderella at the ball” as soon as possible.
Just taking time to think about each of these roles in the plot and asking how they apply to your life can review interesting results. We must choose the framework from which we view our lives, or the point of view we are going to have on our lives, to live joyfully!
Affirmation
I give myself permission to recognize which part I’m playing in my own Cinderella tale and the power to change my part if I want to!