Darla wanted to hide. She’d been doing it all her life. Her story was a difficult one, and she’d gotten very good at wearing a mask of performance and accomplishment around others. Now when unexpectedly confronted with the opportunity of telling her story, her whole story, her stomach knotted up and her chest tightened. Could she do this?
Humans hide. It’s what we do. And we’re good at it. We’ve been good at it ever since the garden of Eden. We make masks of good things such as performance, productivity, accomplishment, humor, anger, or physical appearance. But we are not truly seen and known. We use addictions to try to assuage our internal angst or sex to try to fill our craving for connection. But it’s never enough. All you can say is, “I can’t get no satisfaction.”
And you keep avoiding the very thing that would bring healing to your angst and satisfy your craving to be truly seen and known; telling your story.
You may intellectually agree that telling your story would be a healthy thing to do. But to actually do it? My story’s too messy. People would think less of me. Or they’d pity me, and that would be worse.
But there is real power in telling your story. And the thing is, it’s not only good for you; it’s also good for those you tell your story to. Here’s how that’s true.
To read more, check out Dr. Carol’s blog.
(Excerpt taken from Dr. Carol’s blog “What Telling Your Story Does for You and Others.”
