How to Easily Change the Tapes we Play
By Z Zoccolante
We play tapes every day. Our thoughts and feelings, old memories, happy times, and times we’ve been wronged.
I tell my friend a situation I’m processing. My friend tells me, I’m glad I get to see myself in you like a mirror.
Say more, I say.
And my friend says, It reminds me of the tape I’m playing lately, the one where so and so stabs me in the heart.
I chuckle because I’m morbid and I get it.
So we pretend that we have a wall of cassette tapes and each of them has a label and every day we get to choose from this great big wall which tape we want to play.
And we have so many wonderful happy tapes, but often we gravitate towards the ones labeled for our destruction.
What does your tape say, my friend asks, and I laugh.
It says, so and so guts me and leaves me bleeding alone on the floor while wandering off to kiss someone else.
We both laugh, cause we’re morbid like that.
And I say, yeah that sounds like a fantastic one. Let’s play that while I’m driving to work.
More laughter.
We both agree. Why on earth would we choose those tapes. Why don’t we choose another? Why not choose the one that says, “I am super duper loved” or “best day of my life”, or “Adventures in Italy”, or any of the millions of amazing, happy, joyful tapes on the shelf.
WHY NOT? Perche no?, as they’d say in Italiano.
At the end of the day it comes down to this. Choice. We get to choose what tape we play. We get to choose how the world mirrors back to us what we believe about ourselves. We get to choose.
So, let’s choose well. Let’s take time to sit with our sadness and allow it to be there. And then let’s allow it to pass.
Because we are worth it, and in this beautiful one life that we have to remember, why not choose happiness, peace, love, expansion. Why not choose the tape with the label that makes us smile.
*Note on processing:
Something I find helpful is the Ho’oponopono prayer.
In its simplicity, this is it:
Dr. Hew Len, healed every person in the Hawaii State Criminal Hospital by looking at the charts of each patient and repeating four statements. These four statements allow us to see where there is healing that can take place in our own lives, since everything in our life is our responsibility. Dr. Len describes it as, “Healing the part of me that created them.”
Put this into practice by being with the situation that causes you pain. Think of the situation or the person involved and repeat these four things.
I’m sorry.
Please forgive me.
Thank you.
I love you.
It’s beautiful and it works. You may cry and not know why you’re crying. Do the prayer. It cleanses the soul.
With Love,
Z :)
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