Susan Conley, in her TED Talk titled 'The Power of Story', says:
“Lives can be changed by storytelling”
The fact is, that life could be yours; it could be someone else's. Your story matters, because your story is life-shaping, life-defining and life-changing. It has the potential to chart and change the course of a human life. Isn't that incredible?
Let's look at some of the changes that can be wrought through telling your life story:
The physical benefits of story
Put simply, there are some very positive, physical benefits to sharing your story. According to Psychology Today, telling your story to someone who cares:
- turns off your body's stress responses and toxic hormones
- turns on relaxation responses, including healing hormones like endorphins
- turns on the body's self-repair mechanisms
- relaxes your nervous system
The psychological benefits of story
So powerful is the effect of storytelling on our psyche, that a whole field has developed called 'narrative psychology'.
According to this theory, the way we tell our life story affects our present reality.
The same story - the identical facts - can be told in two different ways. One way, which is to look at the trials and the injustice, leads to hopelessness and depression. But, by focussing both on positive experiences and positive outcomes of negative experiences, our emotional well-being is significantly increased.
The facts matter less than the narrative. This is not self-delusion. It's simply re-interpretation.
Telling your story in a positive light can:
- affect how we look to the future
- affect how we feel in the present
- affect how we remember the past
In fact, on that last point, it's astonishing how the way we tell past events can actually influence our memories. And, when our memories change, our entire outlook on life is liable to shift.
The relational benefits of story
Stories are deeply emotional experiences. They're emotional for the storyteller and the story receiver. A good story moves people deeply.
The delightful thing is that our life stories, those deeply personal parts that, curiously, we rarely share - those make the best stories, because they tug so tightly on the inner strands of a human being.
Stories are wonderfully easy to connect with. Whether Ismaili, Christian or otherwise, each individual story has so many elements that are easily relatable to. And when others identify with our story, there is an immediate dissipation of loneliness as we begin to feel understood.
It's no surprise then that story is such an influencing power.
Salesmen and marketers the world over, from individuals to mega-companies, use story to sell their product. Why? Because they are hugely powerful.
The reason is that emotions, the inevitable result of story, shape our values. Values are those things that people act on. So when you share your life story, the emotions it evinces can have an amazing influence over the way people act.
Some people abuse this. But what an incredible opportunity for good!
Think about it: your life story could be the key to unlocking good in your family, your neighborhood or your community!
Ismaili or Christian, we are all part of God's story
I've recently finished two immensely powerful books: Shattered Dreams by Larry Crabb and To Be Told by Dan Allender. Both books picture Almighty God as the divine Storyteller. God, they say, invites us to join in the writing of our story as co-authors. Through prayer, we begin to understand the story God is writing with our lives, and through living we get to enter into a grand story, of which ours is a necessary and thrilling part.
I'm excited that my story, your story, our stories are all part of the story of God's Kingdom. They are designed to bring Him glory.
That's why I want to meet your story, and why I invite you to meet mine.
Would you consider sharing a little of yours in the comments below? We want to celebrate with you the divine story God is writing through your life.