The Power of Our Stories

We all have a story. From our earliest memories to our mundane day-to-day tasks, each part of the story gets stored in our minds and contributes to how we see ourselves and the world around us. Each part of the story has its own tone with different thoughts and feelings associated with it. Some of these stories might bring feelings of joy and nostalgia, while others might bring feelings of sadness or fear, and everything in between.

The thing with stories is that they’re subjective and not a simple recounting of facts. There are always different things happening in the background and different interpretations of what happened depending on the position of the person. We all have thoughts, feelings, and biases that colour the experience and influence how we tell the story. If I asked two people to tell a story about who I am to them, surely I would hear two different interpretations. There are endless ways to tell a story.

So what does this all mean? It means that the stories we have about ourselves are not the full picture. It’s impossible. Our stories are a series of events, thoughts, and feelings that we’ve strung together and repeated. And the more we repeat them the stronger they get. When I have a story of a pleasant experience that fills me with peace, or a story of determination where I feel proud of myself, this story is likely serving me well. It may help to fill me with positivity or drive me to take a risk and grow. But then there’s the other stories. The story that tells me I’m a failure and there’s no use in trying. The story that says that I need to appease others or I’ll get hurt. These stories can hurt us.

So now what? Well, the first step is noticing what stories you tell yourself. Which ones are serving you well? Which ones aren’t? Then we need to explore where these stories come from, and whether there’s other parts of the story that are being neglected but might be helpful to bring attention to. When we explore and thicken these stories, we can begin to retell them from a different perspective.

Retelling our stories can be empowering and healing. It reminds me that we’re in control of our story, even when things feel completely out of control. There’s always more to the story than what’s on the surface, and when we begin to peel back the layers we can be pleasantly surprised by what we find.