55: The Story in Your Head Is Keeping You Stuck (Here’s the Truth)

How many parts of your life are being shaped by a story that isn’t actually true?

In this deeply personal episode of Rooted & Rising, Tara Mychelle explores the invisible narratives our minds create to keep us safe — and how those same stories can quietly block the love, success, and abundance we’re meant to experience.

Through a vulnerable reflection about her relationship with her mother, Tara shares the moment she realized a painful belief she carried for years wasn’t the truth — it was a protection story that had outlived its purpose.

When we allow these stories to run our lives, they become the guard standing in front of the door to everything we want.

But what if the door was never locked?

This episode explores:

• How subconscious stories shape our relationships and decisions
• Why the mind creates protective narratives after emotional wounds
• How old beliefs can block love, opportunity, and connection
• The courage it takes to question the stories we’ve always believed
• What becomes possible when those stories finally move

Tara also shares a powerful moment from a live concert that revealed how quickly we create stories about other people — and how those assumptions shape our reality.

If you’ve ever felt stuck, unseen, undeserving, or unsure whether the life you want is truly available to you, this conversation will challenge the story behind that feeling.

Because the life you want might already be here.

You may just need to move the story standing in front of the door.

Transcript

Opening Visual: The Unlocked Door

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Are you ready for this one, y'all? I don't know if you're gonna like it. I don't know. You might, you might not, but I want you to consider. There's a door right in front of you. On the other side, everything. Everything you've ever desired. The only thing standing in your way is the story in your mind. That's it. The only thing standing in your way is the story in your mind. And you made it up to keep yourself small. Here we go. Stick with me today. Welcome to Rooted in Rising. I'm your host, Tara Michelle, intuitive guide, storyteller, and fellow traveler on this wild path of becoming. This is a space for the soul led, for the ones unraveling old stories tending to their healing and rising, not perfectly, but powerfully into who they are here to be. Here we explore what it means to live with intention, to love with depth, and to trust that even the hard things are shaping us. I'll share pieces of my own journey, the cracks, the beauty, the breakthroughs, and invite voices who are walking this path too. Because I believe life isn't happening to us, it's happening for us. So come as you are, root in and rise up. And thank you. Truly thank you for being here. Welcome back to Rooted in Rising, everybody. I'm Tara Michelle, I'm your host of the show. And for returning listeners, thank you always for being here again. And if you're new to the show, welcome. Enjoy having you. This is a space for the soul-led, the people who are questioning old stories, untangling who they've been and rising into who they're becoming. So again, I'm Tara Michelle. I'm the host of the show. And around here, we talk about healing, truth, transformation, the messy, the beautiful, and all the processes of becoming fully ourselves. Okay. Let's go ahead and get into today's episode. Last week, on last week's episode, I talked about, we're going to talk about the brain and the mind and how the mind works. I'm going to put that episode on hold, although I probably should do it. But really, what I want to talk about today are some real things that I'm moving through. Cause in that last episode, as I shared with you, I have been moving deep through some of my own personal spaces to transform and heal, uh, specifically in the area of self-worth and undeserving, giving up these stories of undeserving, particularly how those stories show up in my career, uh, relationships, romantic, whether they're family, familial, all of it. So I'm deep in the trenches. It's feeling fucking great. Not really, but I want to get into today's story, uh, today's episode. Um, because it's real. It's real, it's raw, it's what's happening. And yes, I like getting into all the good stuff about neuroscience and how our brains are wired and worked, working, but I also want to, you know, put my raw, authentic self out here and in hopes that whoever's listening, hopefully this is gonna make a difference for you. You know, there's a reason why you're listening to this podcast. And so here we go. I'm just gonna get into it. Okay. So I want to talk about stories. Stories, not the kind you read, not the kind you tell at dinner. Okay. I'm talking about the ones that live in your body, the ones that have been running on a loop so long you forgot you wrote them. The ones your mind created, not your soul, not your heart, your mind. To keep you small, to keep you safe, and to keep you stuck and limited. And here's what I've been sitting with. It's been a big week. I actually had a whole nother episode that I wanted to share with you today. But this one came up and I felt it was more pressing. Every single thing you want the love, the abundance, the career, the man, the house, the woman, the life, it's right on the other side of a door. Okay, this is a this is a visual um metaphorical door, okay? A big, thick, wooden door, and that door isn't locked. It was never locked. Now, for my visual people, go ahead and envision this, okay? Just envision you're standing in this hallway or a tunnel, and there's a door, okay? But there's something standing in front of that door. It's a story. Your story, the one you made up, the one your mind convinced you was the truth. And today we're kicking that door down, okay? If you're ready, I know I am, so let's kick the shit out of it, okay? Let's get it down. So, as I shared, I'm gonna get personal today, because that's the only way I know how to do life through sharing. And I have a story about my mom. And the story goes like this This is the story, okay? She judges me, she sees me as irresponsible, she looks at me, especially when things are hard, and she looks down on me. And if I ever reach out, if I ever let myself be seen as struggling, I will be shamed, I will be a problem, and I will be abandoned. And that story has been living in my solar plexus, in my heart, and it feels heavy, thick. It has an energetic weight to it. It's very visceral, right? It's very visceral when it's in there. When it when I tune into it, it's it's like it's in there, and it crawls up into my throat and locks my throat down so I can't speak. Because God forbid I reach out for just a hug or just a hand or just love. So, what do I do? I build walls, thick ones, and when I'm around her, those walls go up automatically like armor, and she can't get in, she can't show me love, she can't be interested in me. My energy is so thick, so fortified that she can't penetrate it. And here's the thing, here's the real thing, okay? The only person who built those walls is me. I'm the only person who did that. Now, are there valid reasons for the building of those walls? Fuck yeah, there are. Fuck yes. There are things from my childhood, from my teen years, from my early 20 years that were not safe in that relationship. There are things that were hard, paths we've walked, that left pretty significant marks. And I'm not erasing that. I'm not pretending those things didn't happen. But I am saying this. I am no longer a little girl, I am an adult woman. I have a voice, I can open my mouth, I can stick up for myself, and the story I carried out of that little girl's pain, it's not the truth of today. I told my mom actually today, this morning, as I'm recording this. I told her, I'm afraid to call you because I believe I'm not enough. I believe I'm undeserving, and I believe that you don't love me. So when I'm in these moments, you know, as I shared last episode, I'm in some deep, deep moments, deep self-reflection, deep emotional heavy, deep in needing to make real adult choices and terrified to reach out to my mom and my stepdad. 55-year-old woman, terrified to reach out to my parents. Like, what the fuck is that? And like I said, that that visceral story that comes up, it literally overtakes my body to where I am frozen, you know, like fight or flight. I'm one of those that freezes. And so in that moment when I told her that I'm afraid to call her because I feel undeserving, I feel ashamed, I feel I won't be loved, I feel I won't be received. And she was just like, it's not the truth, it's not the truth, it's not the truth, Tara. That's not the truth. And I could feel her, I could feel her just wanting to reach through the phone and just hold me, like, what are you saying? And the truth is, I know it's not the truth. I cut myself off from the love my own mother wants to give me because of a story that I have held on for centuries. Because of something my mind created to protect the little girl who needed protecting at the time. But that little girl is grown now, and that story, it's bankrupt. It doesn't get to run this timeline anymore. This time in my life, yes, and I will say this timeline, because in some further out shows and some coming up episodes, I want to talk about the ability to shift your timeline just like that. Everything is a frequency. So when I sat with all of this, what I was shown, and I and I'll say we my mom and I had a beautiful moment. We had a beautiful moment, and it felt really good to be open with her and be really raw with her this morning. It was like the thing I needed. Like I had the big ugly cry, just bawling my eyes out to my mom, and not bawling, but it's that big, ugly, heavy, like guttural cry, you know. Like I had one of those with her, and it fucking felt good. I needed that, even though she doesn't, you know, she lives nine hours away, but it was good to have that with her over the phone and just be able to share my truth and have her wrap her energetic arms around me. Like, are you kidding me? Are you crazy? So, anyways, let me get back to the story here. So I sat with all of this today. What I was shown was a vision, and it was a door, okay, and it was a big, thick wooden door at the end of a hallway. And on the other side of that door, when I began to open the door, I literally kicked the door open. There were blue skies, crystal clear blue skies, green grass, blooming flowers everywhere, abundance, life, everything I've ever prayed for, everything I've ever wanted. It's all right there, right now, right here, right now. But standing between me and that door has been a giant, raging, what I believe to be terrifying story, like a fucking bear ready to tear me apart. Okay? And I'd been doing what most of us do. I walk right past it, I pretend it isn't there, and then I build my walls and I stay as far away from it as I possibly can. And the whole time, the whole time, the whole time, the only one who put the bear there was my own mind trying to protect me, lying to me in the name of safety. So here's what I did. I told that story to move. Step to the left, please. Because it's not my soul, it's not my heart, it's my mind and what the mind does, creating narratives to keep us from getting hurt. But when I let that story move to the left, thank you. When I refuse to let it block my path, I can kick that fucking door wide open. And that is exactly what I did. And yes, I mean metaphorically, yes, I was doing this with my eyes closed, and I could see this door, and I just kicked it open, but I could also see the thickness of this story, this visceral haze of darkness that I'd been clinging on to for dear life. Because God forbid it not be true, then what? Okay, that's probably a whole nother episode. But when I kicked that door down, I stepped over that threshold and I stood in that meadow, and I could feel it. I let myself feel it. I could feel the grass beneath my feet. I could feel the coolness in the air. I could hear the birds, I can smell the flowers. I could feel the love that was actually available from my mother, the love that was available and present from my father, my stepfather, the love of God, the career I desire, the man I've prayed about and wondered, could he be real? Is someone like that actually there for me? Yes, he is there. The home and the house I desire, the life that I desire for my son, the family that I desire for both of us, the women I'm meant to serve through this work. It is all there now. All of it right here, right now, already available. And the only thing that was blocking it was a story. Now, let me bring in something that happened last night, which I thought was interesting because it showed me this from a separate uh different angle this morning when I was going through all this. My girlfriends and I went to a show. We went and saw Jamestown Revival. They're one of my favorite bands. And we actually uh bought the tickets for back in November for my birthday, and the day before the show, it was rescheduled to March yesterday, which was like, I was devastated. I was like, that's a long time, that's a long ways away. But we went and it was an amazing show. Amazing Jamestown Revival, Sella Campbell, and uh the band of heathens, and such an amazing show. But we were walking with our arms around each other, laughing, talking, and just being who we are, talking about how great the night has been and how excited we were to be out and be hanging out because it's been a while. And we were just being in the present moment. And when we went back into where the music was playing, this woman out of nowhere comes up to us and she's like, I've been watching the two of you. And I had to come over and tell you, you are my people. We're looking at her like, uh, okay. And then she just puts, she grabs us, puts her arms around us, and tells us how we are her people and how much she loves us and she gives us this kiss and hugs us, and then she just like like she's gonna keep an eye on us, and she just walks away. And both of us are standing there, like, what just happened? So it was one of these moments, and I was thinking, are we really your people? Like, you don't know who we are, you you know nothing about us. But she had a story about us. Okay, she created a story, and in that moment, all of what she did had her either want to provide more gratitude towards us, or maybe it had her feel safe because for some reason she wasn't feeling safe in the space, and so we were her people. I have no idea, right? I have no idea. But here's what I also saw. So she had built the story about us, right? And she had turp and she interpreted what she was seeing with the three of us, and in particular the two of us that she then came up to. And she'd created this whole narrative. And yet, here the thing is, is my dear friend and I, we were doing the same thing because there were all kinds of very interesting things happening around us while we were standing out there on the dance floor watching this band, and we were standing in the crowd, I should say. There were all kinds of things happening behind us, next to us, in front of us, and we were just we ourselves, we had all these stories about what was going on. And the funny thing is, is I think to myself, like uh we were just knee deep in the matrix last night with all of people and all of people's narratives and all of people's stories about who we are, who we're not, how we should operate, how we shouldn't, you know, all these things. We are all walking around, living inside of stories we've made up about each other, and we're complete strangers, making up entire worlds based on nothing but perception filtered through our own beliefs. And that's what we do as people, all of us. We do it all the time. We decide who someone is before we've ever spoken to them, we decide what's available to us before we've ever tried something, we decide what's true about ourselves. I'm not enough, I'm not deserving, I'm not loved. And we live as though that's the gospel, and it's not, it's a lie, it's a lie that the brain tells you to keep you safe. And here's what I want you to sit with today. The only thing, the only thing standing between you and the life you truly desire, the life you are truly worthy of is a story. A story your mind invented, a story you've been tending to like it's real, like it's the truth. When it was never anything more than a protection mechanism that outlived its purpose, it's bankrupt. One of my favorite sayings from the Gospel of Thomas says it this way that which is within you, if you do not bring it forth, it will destroy you. That which is within you, if you bring it forth, it will save you. Your bigness, your light, your gifts, your love, your life, it doesn't make you a target. Staying small doesn't make you safer. It just makes you less alive. God has not forgotten about you, and that is something I am really wrapping my head around right now because I recognized a story that I had this week. This was part of another episode I was going to share today, but that that one I'll share it later. But that was part of another story that I had made up about a time in my childhood, and I decided God had abandoned me. And God has not forgotten about any one of us. The universe has not run out of things to give you. No, it has not. You are not behind, you are not undeserving, you are not too much, you are not too broken, and you are not too fucking late. You're just not at all. You just have a story. Standing in front of your door. And it's time to move that story. And I want to leave you with a few questions to sit with. So grab a journal. Go ahead and do that. And give yourself some space with these. Because I'm telling you, I've I've been I've been giving myself some space. Moving through these questions myself. So number one, pick one area of your life that you're not happy with right now. Just one. What is the story you have about it? Write it out. Don't edit the story. Just let it free flow out of you. Number two, as a result of the story, what actions are you not taking? And what are you avoiding? What behaviors are you choosing to keep that story intact? Three, what if the story wasn't true? What if it was never true? What would become available to you if that story completely dissolved? And number four, and this one takes courage, okay, for real. Have you ever actually gone to the source, had the conversation, asked the question, or have you just been living inside of your interpretation of it? And why that one takes courage is because I'm inviting you. Speak your truth to whoever it is you need to speak your truth to. You might find out that whatever the story is that you think is so true is not the truth. And you do that by telling the story, and the story will move, it will dissolve right in front of you. So I just want to say thank you to all of you listening to this show, following me, uh, joining me on this journey we call life rooting in and rising. I mean that. I am with every single one of you that are here with me. I'm staying rooted and I'm rising with you. And I'm in the middle of bursting through into a whole new realm, right alongside of you, and this whole new realm of life. It's a reckoning of self, an awakening of self. We are in year of the fire horse, y'all. Let's like get on the fucking horse and ride, right? So if this has landed with you, please share it with anyone who you feel it may make a difference for. Also, um leave a review, please. I would love to hear from you. Those comments or reviews make a difference. And I'd love to hear where any of you are at. I'm here. I'm here to support you. I'm here to you know walk this journey with you. We are all here together on this planet. Let's enjoy it together and let's play and let's talk some shit out. So come find me. You can find me in the show notes. It'll direct you to where you can find me online. But until next time, I want to say thank you. Love all of you. Bless you. Have a beautiful week, and we'll see you next week. Have a good one. Thank you for rooting in and rising with me today. If something in this episode stirred something in you, take a breath, take what you need, and let the rest soften. Be sure to follow the show so you don't miss what's next. And if you feel called, share this episode or leave a review. It helps the space grow and reach others on the path. Until next time, may you walk with trust, speak with love, and rise in your own time. I'm so grateful you were here with us, and thanks for being here. We'll see you on the next episode.