Why Your Unique Story is So Powerful
It’s why we go to movies, rent them at home, watch TV, read so many books, go to live theatre, etc.
My mother, bless her beautiful heart, instilled in me such a love for stories and reading. As a little girl, she read to me at bedtime every night. Even now I feel this is the greatest gift she gave me. Treasure Island, Snow White, Winnie the Pooh, Bambi, Gulliver’s Travels and by the time I was eight years old I was gobbling up Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys and the adult books that filled the bookcases in our home, especially mysteries.
When the Disney movies appeared she took me to see them all. My favourite was ‘Fantasia’. Classical music playing in our home was common and so I hummed along with it’s familiarity. I especially loved the hippos dancing in their pink tutus!
Going on and on down memory lane would be easy, but I have something quite profound to share with you instead.
Each one of us has our own miraculous, astonishing, personal chapters in our life story. To us, it is just our life. No one ever told us just how powerful and valuable our life story happens to be. Why is it so important? Two reasons:
Your Unique Story is So Powerful for Two Reasons
1. Because our stories of difficulty, sorrow, pain, etc. are the great, human equalizer.
2. Your life story is the footprint you leave on this planet. Your legacy.
No two stories are the same. Each life story can cover several generations and our experiences run the gamut of every emotion from elation to catastrophic agony. Throughout all of this, we evolve and grow as human beings and it is when we are experiencing our deepest misery that we do our greatest growth.
In today’s world Fascism and totalitarianism is growing, we are drastically divided racially and politically, hatred rises more each day, the Covid 19 pandemic has raged, and there is war in Eastern Europe and recently, Israel. The planet is dying from human greed and the need for power as much as too much carbon. To me our greatest sickness is judgment. We are very quick to put this into play several times a day. And just as often, we are wrong in our judgment.
Behind every door of every domicile wherein every human being resides, even if it’s a tent flap, there is a story just as important as yours and mine. Heartbreaking stories of the past and present, in this way, we are all the same. We often have several stories of critical, pivotal crises that make up our life story.
The Influence of Vulnerability in Your Unique Story
We keep our most painful stories close to the chest. Feelings of shame, guilt, and fear of appearing vulnerable keep us quiet. “No one must ever know”, “What if someone found out?”, etc. are words that keep us imprisoned. Our worst fear is being judged. What is the cure for judgment? Well, understanding is gained by sharing and with understanding we grow empathy and empathy brings people together.
You say, “Talk about my worst nightmare? Never!” However, I believe in this so totally that I decided to share my life stories. I’m old enough to have a long, fairly dramatic life and I have done some exponential growth as a result. So, I share seven chapters of my most critical, life-pivoting crises plus what I learned from them and how I bounced back from the brink each time.
Allowing yourself to be vulnerable requires enormous courage. This does not mean you need to stand up in front of a crowd and bare your soul, or write a book. It means beginning with a loved one, a trusted good friend who will listen to you with an open heart, a councelor, etc. Perhaps this will encourage them to do the same, either with you or someone else.
Easy vs. Hard: Your Choices Impact Your Unique Story’s Power
All change begins slowly. If, little by little, we begin to share our stories of pain, loss, betrayal, death, abuse, and more, we will begin to realize we humans are more the same than different. Empathy equals healing.
You can read my stories and the methods I learned to overcome the pains and bounce back with more knowledge, in my book “Born to Bounce Back” available on this website. I invite you to join me in cutting the bonds of everything that keeps us feeling trapped but rather lifts us up to a freedom seldom enjoyed by most human beings.
Remember….only doing what is ‘easy’ keeps your life shallow, while doing ‘the hard’ brings fullness, depth and freedom to your existence.
