Collective storytelling
Getting to know yourself cannot be achieved in a ten-step guide found in some lifestyle, beauty or health magazines. Only by going through an inner journey can we understand our beliefs about money, relationships, careers and life.
This will be uncomfortable and painful for many of us, which is why I suspect many people decide not to. Ignorance is bliss, right? Often, we find that as a part of our journey, we understand that we live by someone else’s values but our own.
A potentially scary thought …
I don’t believe this to be an entirely individualistic quest either because that is another dangerous trope. When we become too focused on ourselves, we stop seeing the other and often end up with values rooted in greed over compassion. Although we still have to go within, we can do it together.
Earlier this week, I listened to two podcast episodes. One was with a Native American, and the other was with an Australian Aboriginal.
Overall, I was very impressed by their talk about being connected to people and places. In their view, places have a spirit in itself. And in some ways, I agree that the earth has a spirit in the way we do. We need to treat the earth, with the same care with treat people.
The Australian Aboriginal was named Tyson Yunkaporta, and he has written a book called Right Story, Wrong Story: Adventures in Indigenous Thinking. I have not read it yet, but it is on the reading list now.
What fascinated me the most about Tyson and the Aboriginals was individuals did not create the stories they lived by. The stories, underpinning values and beliefs were discussed in their communities, and they followed a rigorous process to get to the right story and the wrong one.
They connect through ceremonies and rituals, which gives them space to slow down and truly listen. What I also found intriguing was that there was no one figurehead. Yes, there are elders, but decisions are made as a community.
Many people today use social media, the news, magazines, etc, to find their “right story”, but is it really? Who agreed upon this, and how did we get there?
I believe there is strength in people coming together from all walks of life to agree upon what the stories we tell ourselves will be. Because so many of the individual and collective stories we are telling right now are not helping us.
If anything, it is leading us to the destruction of our mental, physical, emotional and spiritual health.
We must change the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves and others.
We need more grounded, shared and purposeful communities to face many of the challenges that will come in the future.
In the new year, I aim to hold contemporary spaces where we can come together as people to discuss the stories we live by and hopefully create new ones.
UPCOMING CLASSES:
BOOK A ONE-TO-ONE
OTHER PLACES YOU CAN FIND ME