As a child, I adored fairy stories and read all the books we had in our local library. I fell in love with the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Anderson and the Arabian Nights. And then I grew up, and moved to the real world, and forgot about these stories – but stories are amazing tools for change. Modern workplaces are discovering this (check out The Ugly Duckling Goes To Work!). In 2007, I took part in an amazing NLP Storytelling course run by one of my “team”, the amazing Jane Talbot of Humans Resourced http://www.facebook.com/HumansResourced – and I fell in love all over again with the stories, as I understood the layers of any story….

So this week, in my stuck week, I was asked along to Spiral Heart’s http://www.spiralheart.co.uk/ story telling event in Glasgow, I decided to go. Leslie had done the same course – and is also part of Team Caroline. The course is about using stories for change, using Milton-esque language skills and guided relaxation.

Going up to this event was a BIG THING for me to do on a Wednesday night, a day I don’t otherwise have to travel to Glasgow. I went for lunch with Emma, and she decided to join me, as I explained that Andrew and Leslie were shamans and that storytelling is a vital part of their beliefs, but that this would be a chance to experience how stories had layers, and something she might be able to use in teaching.

The story was Billy Goats Gruff; and the first stage was simply telling the story we all know. Yet even through that, and I realised some very important truths! Andthen some other lessons appeared when we came at the story from different angles. It proved to be a special time – sometimes these unexpected things are, in ways we don’t expect at all, as well as an opportunity to escape from life.

This week, I learned again how the Law of Attraction Works, and I learned it’s time to deal with my fears about debt – and wealth. I was worried about debt (even though we are nearly at the end of paying all of our debt off), and I got myself very down about this, forgetting absolutely to take responsibility for where I was now, or to be grateful for what I had. So the Universe stepped in to remind me – three times.

First of all, my current account was hacked – but thankfully the RBS systems stepped in, and I was contacted and lost no money, but my card was cancelled, and I am still waiting on getting my account back up and running. Then I lost my pin number for another account, so couldn’t get money from there either. Then I got a letter from our mortgage provider to tell me that the bank had told them there was no instruction from my bank to pay the mortgage – the bank and the mortgage provider both blamed each other. I also almost nearly forgot my password to talk to the bank in the first place.

At this stage, I didn’t know I had three events – but I made the link through the Billy Goats Gruff story, a story of threes! AndI had the grace to laugh when I realised I had to be told to listen three times.. so I’m working on changing my beliefs in these areas, starting by being willing to change..

Because the stories are heard in a relaxed state, your unconscious mind can access the learning you all-ready know and bring it forward so you can see what you couldn’t before – so for me, there were also lessons about fear (being afraid to walk over the bridge, fearing the troll), to just feel the fear and do it, because the treasure is on the OTHER side…. that once over the bridge, I didn’t need to be fearful anyway, as I was never going to go back over that way, to lighten up and have more fun, to keep moving, and that I can actually do things NOW to make a real difference to other people, I don’t have to wait until I’m wealthier, I just need to step back and think about other options. (Emma had told me earlier that day about a film on this subject, called Paying It Forward that is all about this, where each person does something for three other people that they couldn’t do for themselves – and thus effects massive change in that community).

So you can see why I still love stories! And I have a feeling that Andrew and Leslie could have found their way to make a difference to the world; they made a difference to mine.