Your Life Is Your Story
Today I’m welcoming guest blogger Nicole LaBonde. Based in Miami, she’s a dancer, choreographer, Pilates instructor and coach. Somehow amongst all that, she found time to write this inspiring article about the power of stories. You can read more about the amazing Nicole below.
I love stories. I love books. I love reading and writing. What I loved most about my professional work in the theatre was the fact that it was really just living stories. My job as an actor, choreographer and director was to help the story be told.
Our lives are full of stories. Fairy tales and nursery rhymes. Our family history. Myths. The history of our world, our country, our state, our town. Stories of our religious tradition. Stories to illustrate a point. Stories to share more intimately when a list of facts or a graph will not drive it home.
When I do public speaking coaching, I encourage my clients to frame their speech as a story, and to think of it as a story, rather than a “presentation”. Audiences want to hear stories, engage in stories. Then we all feel like one group. Presenting is an “us v. them” construct.
With so many stories in our lives, it’s no wonder we get mixed messages sometimes. And, as we learn new stories, sometimes they create tension with our old stories.The stories we are told by Hollywood, while they fulfill our sense of romance or adventure, don’t coexist well with every day life. Believing these “other” stories is dangerous. They draw us away from writing and understanding our own present chapter.
So does focus on the previous chapters in our book. Just like a novel, you can’t get to chapter 20 without chapter 1. But the character is not the same as she was then. She’s grown, learned, moved on. Hopefully for the better. You need those early chapters. They have helped to create who you are now. But they are not who you are now. You character is ever-evolving. She doesn’t need to believe in what she did in chapter 1. Or even just the chapter before.
Your story is unique. Written by you, with you as the main character. There are no wrong answers in your story. The plot keeps going, based on the decisions you make. Like one of those “Choose Your Own Adventure” books from childhood. Sometimes it takes longer to get to the resolution than we would like, but it’s coming. Sometimes the chapters are short, forcing us to turn the page. Sometimes we get caught up in the subplots and drama of our minor characters, instead of letting their stories be their own.
So, what old story are you believing or holding onto today that doesn’t serve you? What message has infiltrated your heart and mind, but it isn’t really true? What story have you been told about someone else’s life that doesn’t fit for yours? What story from someone else’s life is distracting you from writing your own? Because sometimes, we write a masterpiece.
image: The Reader’s Path by Jeremiah Morelli
Get your personalised Sacred Story and find out what message your life journey has for you.
Get your FREE Field Guide to Radical Self-Care!
Thank you Leanne for the opportunity to connect with your community!
Thanks so much for your great contribution here Nicole!
I like reading stories a lot. I also like stories which opens the priest’s preach. I like stories inherited by my ancestors. However I am always stuck in writing stories. I like your 6th paragraph which encourages me to be free in telling my story and let it just flow. Thanks for sharing.
Adelien recently posted…Having Virtual Homeschooling and Blogging Buddies
Thank you! I’m glad you enjoyed it!
Nicole,
I loved this post! The advice to transform presentations into stories is wonderful. I enjoyed your analogy between reading/writing a novel and how necessary the early chapters are to the development of the main character, but the character is not defined by those early chapters and neither should we define ourselves by our early chapters.
I’ve been learning and working on this in my own life and my personal healing and recovery journey, that began on my first blog, Human In Recovery. Now, I’m connecting my story to the stories in my community with this new blog and continuing my journey.
Wonderful post!
Blessings,
Lillian
Lillian Moffitt recently posted…Early Childhood Education: Is Head Start a non-essential entitlement?
Awesome Lillian! Thanks for your comments. Best wishes for your new blog and work!
Hi Nicole. I’ve lived long enough that my life is full of stories. One good thing about getting older is that you are not so susceptible to believing stories that are not true. I’m a lot less likely to hold me life story up to another and finding myself wanting.
It’s a work in progress, though, and I love your pointing out that there has to be a Chapter 1 to get to Chapter 20. I don’t agree with you that there can be no wrong answers, though. What I believe is that there are many wrong turns, twists, bumps, potholes, accidents, and mistakes on the road of life. I’ve made some doozies. However, would I go back and change my life story? Heck, no! If I did, I wouldn’t be the person with the spouse, child, grandchildren, friends, and memories I have today. I wouldn’t give any of it up in exchange for changing my past. Thanks for an insightful post.
All the best,
Leslie
Leslie Denning recently posted…Business Essentials: Autoresponders, Part 2
Thanks for sharing Leslie!
What i meant by ” no wrong answers” is actually what you’ve experienced – it makes you into the person you are today. Wo yes, at the time, it may see wrong or bad or unfortunate or whatever, but on the grand scheme of life, it becomes woven into your character, your chapters, and can even become an integral part of the story!
Great post Nicole! Thank you for the great tip on using story in your speech! Love it!
Julie Barnes recently posted…You Are Doing Awesome!