TRAPPED IN OUR STORIES: A JOURNEY TO FREEDOM
TRAPPED IN OUR OWN LIGHT
We build our prisons from stories,
Brick by brick, year by year,
Each wound becoming a wall,
Each fear a locked door,
Until we can't remember
How we got here.
I know these walls intimately -
How they whisper of safety
While keeping love at bay,
How they promise protection
While stealing our breath,
How they feel like home
Until they become our tomb.
But here's what I learned
In the darkest corners
Of my self-made cell:
These walls are made of light,
These bars are made of grace,
Each story that trapped us
Is actually a door.
The key was always there,
Hidden in plain sight:
Not in changing the story,
But in remembering who's telling it.
Not in fighting the darkness,
But in recognizing ourselves
As the light we kept seeking.
Oh, how we run from room to room,
Searching for answers in achievements,
In substances, in others' eyes,
When all along, the heart knows -
These walls aren't even real,
They're projections of forgotten love,
Holograms of ancient pain.
The way out isn't out at all,
It's deeper in, through the center,
Where the storyteller sits
In naked vulnerability,
Where the heart beats its truth
Beyond all narratives,
Where love remembers itself.
So let the walls be teachers,
Let the prison show the way,
For in our deepest stuckness
Lives our greatest liberation.
Every pattern points home,
Every shadow holds light,
Every story leads to love.
Remember this, dear heart,
When the walls feel strongest:
You're not trapped in your story,
You're the power telling it.
You're not broken by your wounds,
You're the medicine they made.
You're not lost in darkness,
You're the light finding its way home.
Dear One,
I know the pain of being trapped in your own story. Not just intellectually - I know it intimately, too intimately. The experience of seeing how we're caught in narratives we tell ourselves about ourselves... it was perhaps the hardest thing I've ever faced.
Being stuck in our own story is brutal. Frustrating. Disappointing. Through years of diving deep into my own pain, I developed a way to help us see where we are in our story - our growth story, our transformation story, our remembering story.
When we connect to the bigger picture, to the greater story of why we're here, something shifts. It's not random that we keep repeating the same patterns with different people in different places. After 15 years of personal research into storytelling - from Hollywood structure to psychedelic ceremonies, from leading medicine circles to my own intense inner work - I discovered something profound while going through my darkest time.
Trapped in shame and guilt, in depression and perceived inadequacy, I found I could only understand my story by zooming out, by seeing the patterns, by recognizing how each of us is here to remember who we really are.
But here's the thing about remembering - no one can do it for us. Not even plant medicine, which provides direct access to truth, can do the real work. The work is facing ourselves, forgiving ourselves, allowing ourselves to be seen in our full humanity.
Because when we remember who we are and why we're here, what remains is the heart. And to access that heart wisdom, we usually try external solutions - substances, achievements, relationships - anything to convince ourselves we're okay, anything to force our hearts open temporarily.
But the real work? The real work is opening our hearts ourselves. It's having the courage to stay with an open heart even in extreme situations. To trust ourselves, the universe, spirit, and divine love even when everything seems to be falling apart.
I'm here to help, because I've been there. I understand being stuck - I lived it for a long time. I understand what it takes to free ourselves from our stories. The tools I use, beyond the methodology I developed, are deep listening, observation, and lots of love. We explore what closes our hearts and what helps us not just remember, but live and grow as who we truly are.
If this resonates, I invite you to explore deeper:
Visit 12beats.com to explore my story medicine framework - a roadmap for decoding your own story, understanding where you might be stuck, and discovering the medicine waiting to emerge. It's the same methodology that helped me transform my deepest wounds into wisdom.
And for those who want daily guidance, I've created an email journey: "12 Days of Remembering." Each morning, you'll receive a reflection, a story from my path, and a contemplation prompt to help you recognize and release the stories that no longer serve you. This isn't about adding more knowledge - it's about remembering what your heart has never forgotten.
Because here's what I know to be true: Your story isn't a prison - it's a portal. Every moment of being stuck is actually an invitation to remember who you really are.
This is my invitation: Let's remember together. Let's use our stories not as prisons but as portals. Every pattern, every pain point, every moment of being stuck - it's all medicine if we know how to decode it.
Your story isn't your enemy.
Your heart knows the way.
Your truth wants to be free.
With an open heart,
Oriya
P.S. If this resonates, I work one-on-one with healers, business people, and anyone ready to remember and align with their medicine. Through story work, heart opening, and practical tools, we transform what traps us into what frees us.
Book a 30 minute story medicine session so we can get to know each other.