The definition mostly relates to books, movies, mail, social media and other communication formats. But more importantly, what does it mean to you?

Where do you censor yourself?

How do you censor yourself?

Can you express wholehearted thoughts about you and your stories?

Yes, there I go again about stories. Our stories are the living manifestations of what we censor and what we don’t.  Maybe it relates to editing. What do you think?

First, you’ve got to see all of your story – the significant parts and some of the not-so-great times. In shadow side instances, we have to look at, feel and touch what we don’t want to touch. If that involves pain, well then we have to feel the pain before we let it go.

One story for me that provides an example of this is walking on the Camino de Santiago. It’s a spiritual pilgrimage from France to Spain and involves walking close to 500 miles up and down hills, valleys, and mountains to get to the endpoint. You learn quickly what is necessary for your backpack and what is not. Because you feel the extra weight; you feel the pain. You choose to carry the pain or let it go. Walk the Camino, and you’ll see all along the path all sorts of items that people found no longer necessary.

I had to open up the censorship in my mind while walking The Camino which included accepting that the walk is harder than what I thought. I had to see this. Feel it and touch it. These restricted thoughts lie quite thick within us until some pain point digs it up and brings it into our awareness. The pain and the realization combine for choosing the pain – do we keep it, change it or let it go?  And that’s when we get revitalized because we’re telling our story because we haven’t restricted ourselves.

So this story might look something like me saying, “I carefully planned what I wanted to bring on The Camino but in truth, I have no idea what I am doing. I’m lightening up my backpack so that I can walk from one distance to another distance every day. I hope this helps and I hope I make it. “This coming to terms moment is painful. The pain is in the physical as well as the call-to-action metaphor the backpack represents. “Letting go.” Am I  going to carry everything in my bag? If I can be honest with myself (that’s the uncensored part) I allow myself to be fertilized in a vibrant and motivating source of inspiration – myself.

I walk and continue this pilgrimage. It gets easier because I have lightened my load. But maybe, at some future date, I am weary and decide to have my backpack carried by van to the next stopping place. Perhaps I am so tired that I stop the pilgrimage and choose to do the rest another time. I allow many of my censored thoughts to spring up in the current story I am telling myself and at the same time, I  must knowingly forgive myself. I am understanding my story as I live it. I open myself up, and the reservoirs of energy in action potential open up in my cells because I have freed them too.

All that from understanding how we censor ourselves?

Yes, because as the censored, shadow sides of your story come into your mind and heart, you receive the affirmation that you are whole. Forgive the image you thought you were, who you are right now is the truth of who you are now. And this is how we realize we can be our source of inspiration and motivation in the wholeheartedness of our storytelling.