Day 20 - Stories and details



Quotes

"The best lives and stories are made up of minute particulars that somehow are also universal and of use to others as well as oneself."  - Barbara Myerhoff

"As in reality, what has no name, no specificity, vanishes." - Deena Metzger

"All the voices within us become a story." - Deena Metzger

"There is in each of us an on-going story.  It contains our meaning and our destiny. And it goes on inevitably whether we pay attention to it or not. This is our 'Soul Story'." - Al Kreinheder

"Learn to see and then you will know that there is no end to the new worlds for our vision." - Carlos Castenda

Intention

To create a page representing what happens personally when we elect to tell our story.

My process

I created a round (moon) face, using water-colour crayons and stuck it on cardboard. Next I copied the lower lip and the chin area surrounding it with a 'T shape' protruding above it.  I copied the quote by Carlos Castenda onto the 'T shape". Next I used a craft knife to cut along the lower curve of the upper lip on the face and I inserted the 'T shape" through it. The result was a pull-out tab. The purpose of doing this was to show how stories remain untold unless we choose to reveal them and when we do, a standard face, acquires a nuanced dimension.

Journaling Prompt

               Our stories communicate who we are. Humans instinctively realised that. Human history is really the history of stories  and whoever seized control of the narrative, seized control of society. 
               Stories are our legacy. They are the traces we leave behind for those who follow.
               Telling our story allows us to to connect with other people. Listening to a story with empathy allows the teller to feel witnessed. When you tell your story to a sympathetic listener, you turn off the body's stress responses and increase levels of the "feel good" hormone oxytocin, according to P.J. Zak, R. Kruzban and W.T. Matzner, researchers who studied the neurobiology of trust. (Zak PJ, Kurzban R, Matzner WT. “The Neurobiology of Trust,” Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. 2004;1032:224–227).  
              Besides allowing us to connect emotionally with others, stories are also instructive, they allow us to mentally 'try on' a future for 'fit', to develop some understanding of emotions, places and people we would not normally have the opportunity to connect with in real life. Stories such as cautionary tales are instructive, story-telling can be cathartic. Stories are a conduit for entertaining, teaching/educating, provoking/manipulating/inciting and also for intellectual stimulation.
             Based on this, how do you tell your story and what aspects of it do you focus on? Why?
             How we tell our stories and re-frame them can be profoundly transformative. In his book, Change your story, change your life, Carl Greer, points out that the stories we continually tell as our personal truth, determine our ways of being. He says, "Each of us is living a life about which a story can be told. The story has chapters about our body and health; our relationship to a higher power; and our ways of being of service to the world.'
            This is why it is so important to step back and reflect on what stories we tell ourselves and the world about who we are, what happened to us and what we believe. We can make a conscious choice to re-frame our stories in order to empower ourselves and others. We can literally transform our lives through the power of story. To do this, we need to look deeply at our current story, engage with it through a variety of techniques (dialoguing with it through journaling and art-making for example), understand the energies - historical and archetypal - that influence it, work with our dreams, nature, ritual, ceremony and the arts to find a new story that feels right for us, and finally to bring this story to fruition in the world through planning, goal-setting and action. This is a lengthy process that requires self-knowledge, courage, commitment, time, self-compassion and determination. 
          This course scratches the surface of what is possible and what is required. It is a start. 
          Explore the following in your journal today:
- How do I tell the story of my life up to this point in time? What do I say when I talk about my health? My roles, my family, my history, my passions and interests, my beliefs, my future, my hopes and dreams? What do I feel about me?
How do I wish my story could be? What parts of my current story feel 'right' for me - ie what do I want to keep? What would I like to change? How can I begin the process of change?
     

Daily Wrap Up:

     After completing your artwork and journal entry, consider the following questions:
   - Has my work followed the suggested theme? 
- - Is a particular motif, story or message persistently showing through in my work? What does this suggest to me?
   - If not, is there a pattern, underlying suggestion, message or idea which it has raised. 
   - Is this pattern related to my previous journal entries?
   - Would I like to follow it further? If so, how can I do that in a way which empowers me?
   - How do I feel about the work I have done? Why?
- - Do I feel any resistance to the process? Why?
    In your journal, write up a few comments answering these questions, or else highlight the sections of your written work that seem to suggest a pattern or feature you would like to work on.

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