Stories

 

“Stories” at first glance might seem like a light, fun, summery theme — bringing to mind the kind of good “beach read” we might pick up to enjoy on vacation.

But there are many layers to this topic.

Certainly, there’s a fun aspect. Stories can be so engaging and entertaining, not to mention instructive and inspiring. (Of course engaging, entertaining stories can have their dark side too.)

Beyond the pure entertainment value, though, there’s a lot more to stories.

In many ways, stories are the fabric of our lives…

They’re how we make sense of our experiences, how we articulate a world view, how we define ourselves and others, how we imbue our lives with meaning, and so much more.

“Story” can mean self-talk. It can mean explanations and connections. A way of sharing information or wielding influence. It can mean meanings. It can be your personal narratives as well as the messages and beliefs you’ve absorbed from other people and the culture at large.

But overall, when I think about stories, I think of them as lenses we’re looking through.

Yes, a story encompasses a sequence of events, but those events can be framed and explained in such different ways. My favorite example of this is the workshop exercise that involves telling a short version of your life story to a partner — first about you as victim, then about you as hero, then about you as learner. It’s the same facts each time, but each one is a different story due to how those facts are selected and framed.

The lens might be someone else’s — the main character of a book or tv show we’re enjoying, for instance, or the worldviews urged on us by our parents or other groups/cultures to which we belong.

But obviously it’s also profoundly our own lens(es), whatever their origins. Almost every thought we have can be viewed as a story or as a component in a larger one that we’re telling ourselves.

And as we’ve seen during our ongoing “Story of YOU” journaling series, the stories we tell ourselves have a direct impact on our thoughts, emotions, behaviors, and even our physiology.

And because stories so powerfully shape our day-to-day experience and the course our lives take, it’s important to look closely at them.

So often we are hearing, telling, and living these stories unconsciously.

But my invitation to us this month is to (continue to) look more closely at stories — both our own and others’ — so we can be wiser and more intentional about their role in our lives.

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