“An idea is like a virus….it can define or destroy you”
– Cobb in the film INCEPTION

The story (idea) we tell about ourselves, our challenges, and successes may define or destroy us. In his blog On The Brain, neuroscientist Michael Merzenich Ph.D. writes: “Each one of we humans is defined operationally, as a distinct ‘person’, by billions of moments of experientially-driven CHANGE (plasticity) in our individual brains. A large proportion of those experientially-driven moments are internal, driven by our memories and thought and reasoning. By this remarkable capacity for CHANGE, operating more magnificently in our species than in any other, we are each absolutely unique Persons, no two identical.”

Telling our personal stories in the context of “possibility and potential” opens a door that may redefine our lives. Everything we do, think, remember, engage with, and give our attention to have an effect on our neuropathways. Are we the willing and conscious engravers of our own minds? Or, are we bystanders in our own lives? The new science of epigenetics and studies on neuroplasticity reveal that human beings have a capacity to evolve/change/adapt on levels we have barely imagined.

The potential within 6.5 billion empowered and conscious human beings is more than enough to transform and harmonize our world. If only we could get there from here….

More than thirty years ago Gregory Bateson’s book Mind and Nature, A Necessary Unity, enlightened readers: “Everything should be taught in terms of relationships.” The more I live in the context of “the pattern that connects” the more enthralled I become with a sense of the possible and more willing I am to question hidden assumptions and beliefs. Bateson’s work was a harbinger of a holistic, systemic, relational reality and context.
We are reshaped breath by breath, moment by moment, choice by choice.

Living in the empowerment of consciously selecting personal context is something that Ananda Shankar accomplished with astounding courage. Ananda shares her inspiring story, the embodiment of her health through dance on TED:

“Cancer is only one page in my life … my story is the power of thought, the power of choice….I want to be known not as a cancer survivor but as a cancer conqueror.” “I tuned out of cancer and tuned into dance.” Ananda Shankar

Enjoy the experiment that is you!