The Narrative
While making mistakes is not an especially pleasurable experience, when people become depressed, it‘s because they overemphasize the typos in their lives or mistake difficult chapters for their entire plotline. They also under-value the important lessons that come from harder chapters which, if we read them correctly, can help us move on to happier ones.
Telling a true story suggests that there is only one version of explaining or understanding what we experience from moment to moment that is actually valid. Whether or not we realize it, we are constantly sifting through various competing narratives to make sense of our world.
But if there are infinite ways to tell our stories and still infinite more ways to interpret them, how then do we know which version is the true story, and, more importantly, does it really matter?
Positive psychology and a growing body of research suggest how we tell our stories makes all the difference. It not only affects how you feel about your story, but how it unfolds.
How we tell our stories not only matters, but can mean the difference between whether we see our lives as meaningless nightmares or enriching experiences that leave us all the wiser.
Psychology Today
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