Hopefully after a month’s worth of posts on the habit of telling empowering stories and the disposition of optimism, you are starting to think differently about the narratives you tell and the outlook you have. But just in case you need a little more convincing, read this article in Medium: Strengthening Resilience Through the Power of Story. Love how it shares the neurobiology behind storytelling, but also how it goes into the psychology of storytelling: “The language we use to describe an experience becomes the truth we carry around about it. “Frame adversity as a challenge, and you become more flexible and able to deal with it, move on, learn from it, and grow,” writes Maria Konnikova in “How People Learn To Become Resilient” in The New Yorker. “Focus on it, frame it as a threat, and a potentially traumatic event becomes an enduring problem; you become more inflexible, and more likely to be negatively affected.”
The importance of the family story is also shared in the article in Medium: “When children grow up with a strong understanding of their family’s history — where their grandparents grew up, what their parents’ childhoods were like — they have better coping skills and a stronger sense of mattering and belonging.” So much to think about and process when we consider the habit of telling empowering stories and the narratives that we tell.
And I love when I find a resource that also offers some practical strategies to practice. The “A Story About Your Name” activity is such a powerful one not only for owning your own story but also for building community which is our habit for next month…are you ready?
Ready