Realizing that you are not your story is a critical step toward a happy, authentic life. But what does it mean to say that your personal story does not define you?

Mark will provide an overview of how the false self comes into being. He’ll reveal the challenges of separating your worldly identity — the persona you wear in daily life — from the true self behind the mask.

As Homo narrans, the storytelling ape, we survive by telling stories — one of which is the narrative of the “Little Me,” with its myths, beliefs, and aspirations. This self-created identity is a fiction, however — a stand-in for who you truly are.

In fact, you’re the storyteller, not the story. You’re the spiritual awareness behind the persona, reinventing itself at every moment.

When you connect to this larger awareness, myriad possibilities become available to you, including the door to transpersonal freedom. Journaling is an unparalleled tool for opening the doors of perception.

In this module, you’ll discover:

• That you are not your narrative self
• Why the storymaking mind invents fictions to survive
• How these fictions have holes in them and can always be changed
• That Witness Awareness is the power that makes it possible to change your stories

The aspect of the mind that observes the mind is known as Witness Awareness. The Witness is your ace in the hole on the path of self-discovery.

Without the ability to observe your thoughts and feelings, you’d be trapped in a straightjacket of a self-created story you couldn’t transcend through self-inquiry.

Journaling strengthens the Witness through present-moment awareness. When you use penetrating questions to prompt your writing, the Witness thrives — and with it, the insight and wisdom that come from seeing clearly.

The Witness is not an independent entity residing inside you — nor a “thing” outside yourself that makes judgments.

Instead, the Witness is a portal to freedom and the space of spiritual awareness that exists beyond story. Using the Witness to navigate your life, learn to balance the details of daily existence with a wisdom perspective.

In this module, you’ll learn that:

• The Witness is your greatest ally on the path of self-awareness
• Witness Awareness is strengthened through journaling
• Self-inquiry deepens by asking direct questions
• Third-person seeing in journaling expands awareness
• Witnessing enables you to play your roles with greater skill and dexterity

Playing roles is a normal, inevitable part of being a social human being. You move in and out of various personae everyday, enacting different characters in different contexts, exposing distinct parts of yourself according to whom we’re with and the demands of a given situation.

But roles, like stories, are invented adaptations to the environment and the people with whom we cooperate. If you confuse yourself with the roles you play, you’re likely to suffer, leading to despair when certain beloved roles come to an end.

Explore the roles you play and what they require of you. Look at how much you’re forced to perform in your life and the impact that has on your whole being. Learn how you can use Witness Awareness to adjust your roles and masks in ways that suit you more authentically.

For example, if your grown son has moved back home and still expects you to make his dinner and do his laundry, a role update might be in order. If you’re a workaholic who genuinely loves her profession but has trouble taking the work mask off at night, it might be time to loosen your persona a bit.

Journaling provides a mirror in which to reflect your masks and roles, and be truthful about your state of mind and heart.

In this module, you’ll learn that:

• Roles, like stories, are adjustable and open to improvement
• Playing roles is a natural and necessary part of being a social being
• Clinging to masks and roles causes unnecessary suffering
• Using Witness Awareness helps you play your roles more gracefully and effectively

Parts of you — qualities, aspirations, quirks, failings, gifts, and virtues — truly identify who you are, and without them, you’d no longer be you.

Explore your non-negotiables and how they form your sense of identity.

Look at the parts of yourself that, if you lost them, you’d stop being you… which aspects of your story are simply bogus… and which aspects of your personal narrative are based on other people’s stories, conformity, obedience, or self-denial.

You’ll be invited to ask yourself how much better your life would be without those aspects. When you understand your attachments to various aspects of your identity, you’ll see that you are more than these parts — and that these qualities and the stories attached to them do not define who you are.

Awareness creates space in your mind, grounds you in mindful self-awareness, and loosens your hold on changeable, impermanent qualities. The Witness reminds you of this distinction and points you toward the spiritual path of freedom.

In this module, you’ll understand how:

• We all have non-negotiables parts we use to define ourselves
• Your non-negotiables are the pillars of your personal story
• Understanding your non-negotiables creates space between you and your narrative
• Self-awareness liberates you from entanglement in the false self
• Loss becomes a doorway to freedom, revealing the Witness that is never lost

Loss reveals who we truly are, however painful that process may be. This is the value of catastrophe (derived from the Greek for “to turn around”) or any severe change of circumstances.

When you’re stripped bare by life — which happens to all of us, sooner or later — you have an opportunity to see yourself more clearly. When your story falls apart due to divorce, pandemic, illness, or the death of a loved one, it may feel as if nothing makes sense, and that you’re no longer yourself.

That’s because you’re not. When you allow yourself to pause, reflect, and feel the open space left behind by loss, these moments of loss can become doorways into wisdom, enabling you to perceive the part of yourself that can never be lost.

Explore the paradox of loss and growth, and how the losses of your life have also freed you. Discover that blessing the spaces left behind by loss is the most healing thing you can do for yourself in a world where all things come to an end.

It’s possible to come into a deeper sense of self as your attachment to the false self falls away. This is essential spiritual practice facilitated by journaling.

In this module, you’ll learn how:

• Loss can reveal the self beyond story — the being that can never be lost
• Major loss is a doorway to self-reinvention
• Self-awareness increases through hardship
• When you bless the spaces left behind by loss, you align yourself with presence and wisdom
• The choices you make during and after loss infuse your life with its deepest meaning

Stories are vehicles we use to create meaning. In fact, meaning itself is a story, a means of explaining, containing, and forgiving experience — a mode of adapting the mind to life’s conditions in a way that empowers us rather than leaves us adrift.

The story of meaning is central to narratives you invent to give yourself worth and purpose. And that’s why it’s so important to understand where you believe your meaning comes from.

Examine meaning as a story, and the impact of meaning on your personal narrative. Without a sense of meaning, it’s difficult to feel empowered in the face of life’s challenges. As psychologist Viktor Frankl put it, despair equals suffering minus meaning.

Like all stories, meaning is always changing. Examine what no longer has meaning for you, and what has taken on greater importance — new meaning — as you’ve moved through your life’s journey.

When you grasp that meaning isn’t a fixed value, it’s possible to become more flexible, curious, risk-taking, and metamorphic throughout your life, discovering new sources of significance and purpose.

In this module, you’ll explore:

• What no longer has meaning for you and needs to be discarded from your story
• How we formulate stories in order to create meaning
• What has great value — in a new way — and needs to be integrated into your narrative
• That meaning is a story in itself — a story that’s always changing
• Why, without meaning, it’s more difficult to confront life’s challenges

Focus on self-reinvention as a central principle of spiritual life.

When you recognize that you’re always changing — while the Witness in you is steady and ever-present — reinvention comes more naturally. Nothing in nature remains the same. As much as the ego would like to stick to its story (“This is me!”), that effort fails in the face of reality.

The brain creates some 100,000 new cells everyday. You’re forever morphing, adapting, and learning. Knowing you’re not defined by your story, personal evolution becomes easier.

When you are no longer clutching at your identity, the process of personal growth becomes more fluid, expansive, and easy-going. You’re better able to respond authentically, simply, and naturally to the shifting circumstances of your life.

Consider the specifics of what you’d like to change and why, and create a profile of self-reinvention, using the objective, heart-centered, liberated perspective of the Witness.

Guided by Witness Awareness — and your trusty journal — leave this course with all the tools you need to stay oriented toward freedom and awakening.

In this module, you’ll learn that:

• As part of nature, you’re always changing, which is why your story must evolve
• Imagining yourself forward through story is a superpower, as long as remember you’re the storyteller
• Self-reinvention is a central principle of spiritual life
• Creating a profile of self-reinvention from the Witness perspective is liberating and beneficial on your spiritual journey

In this interview, Mark talks with the creator of the Internal Family Systems branch of therapy, Richard C. Schwartz — an American systemic family therapist, academic, and author. They discuss how personal identity is formed, the role of storytelling in creating self-image, the different “parts” that exist within all of us, and the Self (or Witnessing Faculty) that conducts this internal chorus. This inspiring, informative interview is sure to open your mind and heart, addressing questions of authenticity, courage, and freedom that affect us all.

This introduction to Mark’s signature book offers an overview of how deep journaling leads to spiritual awakening, and discusses the importance of recognizing that you are not your story. It draws on Mark’s 40 years of experience as a teacher, author, and seeker, and the core insight that “When you tell the truth, your story changes. When your story changes, your life is transformed.” Learn why asking questions is our human superpower, and discover how to apply this gift for self-inquiry to the challenges of everyday life.