Foundations: Stories
We choose the stories we tell about our lives.
In this week’s episode of the Exploring Unschooling podcast, we’re sharing the next Foundations episode, Stories.
Humans are storytellers. We choose the stories we tell about our lives. In every situation, we can come up with a number of ways to tell the story of it, and they’re all a version of the truth. But we get to choose which version resonates the most with us, which one feels better to us, and then that informs our actions moving forward. Getting curious about the stories we tell can be an amazing form of self-care.
Whenever we talk about stories, I’m always reminded of a quote from the book, The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human by Jonathan Gotschall. I read it years ago and it’s always stayed with me:
“Story is for a human as water is for a fish – all encompassing and not quite palpable.”
I found it truly paradigm-shifting to begin recognizing the stories I was telling myself.
Quick Reminder
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And, back to stories, there are so many layers to peel back!
It’s not just the stories we’re telling ourselves, but also the stories other people tell about us, especially the stories we grew up with. Recognizing that they are just somebody else’s perspective—their story—can be paradigm-changing for us.
Maybe growing up we absorbed the story that we’re too sensitive, or we’re scared to try new things, or we’re very shy. That isn’t our story. It’s their story about us.
We get to choose our own story. To me, that feels so empowering.
Here are the questions we share in the episode to help you explore the idea of stories more deeply:
What stories are you holding on to about yourself, your partner, and your family?
Where are the stories coming from? From your parents during your childhood? The outside voices of society? Somewhere else?
Do you see the story in your self-talk? How else might you tell that story?
How does it feel to realize that you get to craft your own stories?
I hope you get a chance to listen!
Episode 404 is out now on all the regular podcast apps and on YouTube. Or, you can listen on our website here.
And FYI, I just created a new YouTube playlist for the Foundations series of episodes! In this series, Anna and I dive into tools, strategies, and paradigm shifts to help you decrease conflict and increase connection and understanding in your most important relationships.
I have a fondness for playlists. They mean I don’t have to fiddle to find the next episode/video to play. And we’ve shared enough episodes of our Foundations series that I think it might be helpful.
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