When you narrate or write your stories, as a subconscious process, you start sorting what is important and what is not important in the story. This processing of facts helps you to prioritize what is critical and to be focused and what is unimportant. Storytelling is indeed a very helpful technique to prioritize, discard and de-clutter. This helps to consolidate your mind to matters of higher importance. This is in fact, a simple self-help tool used since generations, knowingly or unknowingly.
Narratives and stories give you identity and direction!
Narratives refer to fact-based stories that motivate, help in learning and sharing messages. But, stories generally refer to what we share with kids. Narratives are more like unprocessed facts and stories are like the well worked out facts…
You can share narratives or stories in several ways: via words, photos, writing, as well as via art. They help people gain insight, which leads to a behavioural change and also improves their quality of life. Narratives and stories are the two words that are used interchangeably. A narrative is a word that is more appropriate for academics, and a story is a word for the day to day lives.
In other words, stories are practical ways to pack meaningful data and make it easy to store and easy to retrieve.
Our stories travel within us and to the outside world in three powerful ways…
A. Help you build self-esteem and inspire others
When you narrate your powerful stories, you reflect on the strengths within. Our stories keep reminding us that we will overcome the challenges again. You may find that your parents or grandparents often recall the same stories, of how they faced life among all odds. It fills them with pride and hope for the future. When you listen to powerful stories, it triggers positive thoughts, for those who are having tough times, stories help to cope up. It reminds me of a friend of mine who lost her parents when she was still single, studying for PG entrance, and had a teenage brother. Today when I look at her, I feel proud of the way she stood on her own and raised her brother to be a successful professional. I find myself sharing this story often with my friends and family and more importantly to myself when things are not in my favour. What other than Deepa Malik’s life story could explain this better? From paralysis to Paralympian!
B. Help you prioritize and sort
When you narrate or write your stories, as a subconscious process, you start sorting what is important and what is not important in the story. This processing of facts helps you to prioritize what is critical and to be focused and what is unimportant. Storytelling is indeed a very helpful technique to prioritize, discard and de-clutter. This helps to consolidate your mind to matters of higher importance. This is in fact, a simple self-help tool used since generations, knowingly or unknowingly.
C. Help you assess your thought patterns and beliefs
Stories help you learn from the past and brighten your present as well as the future.
Storytelling also helps in assessment and intervention. When someone who is trying to cope with circumstances, shares their story, it helps mind experts to assess their emotional distortions and intervene if needed to prevent their negative thought cycles.
Strengths-based storytelling also helps therapeutically. It shares thought-provoking messages. Some people have difficulty expressing themselves in words. When we narrate stories, which could help them identify with the characters in the stories; that helps them get more spoken.
How is storytelling used by Mind Experts?
Storytelling is commonly used by counsellors to break the ice. At times, things can be up in the air! It can be difficult for the individual to detach from his/ her situation and look for a solution. A storytelling attempt gives him/ her a chance to look at her/ his life story from a different perspective, an outside view.
Sometimes stories can help empathize (being in other’s shoes), identify, imitate, and imagine. When needed, the therapist can address the unconscious dreams of the client by asking questions of the past. The client gradually gets to identify himself/ herself with the role model of the story and tends to imitate the way role model behaved in the story to overcome life challenges. Thanks to the power of imagination.
Sometimes clients may try to revisit those challenging situations via imagination, create alternate but fruitful solutions and connect them to reality. It gives them a feeling of winning over the past agony!
To sum up, storytelling can solve real-life problems!
Dr. Eric Miller says it’s time for story therapy to be considered as one of the creative arts therapies and expressive art therapies such as music and dance.
Have you shared your story yet? If not, share now!
References
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http://www.storytellinginstitute.org/2.pdf
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https://www.scoopwhoop.com/From-Paralysis-To-A-Paralympian-The-Inspiring-Story-Of-Deepa-Malik/ When you narrate your powerful stories, you reflect on the strengths within. Our stories keep reminding us that we will overcome the challenges again. You may find that your parents or grandparents often recall the same stories, of how they faced life among all odds. It fills them with pride and hope for the future.
