I have thoughts and feelings about what you say and do. You have thoughts and feelings about what I say and do. What happens if most of the thoughts and feelings include judgment, comparison, and criticism?
I have thoughts and feelings about what I say and do. What happens if most of the thoughts and feelings include judgment, comparison, and criticism?
What I spend most of my time thinking and feeling, drives my belief system and contributes to how I create meaning and purpose. My thoughts and feelings color my world.
As one who feels her experience of day, the above feels heavy. It feels fake and disconnected, split. Over time, it would feel dull and empty. Depressing. ie. depression.
One’s thoughts and feelings play off of one another. Thoughts and feelings tell a story. Stories include characters: heroes and villains, protagonists and antagonists. Stories have a general plot or overarching theme (comedy, drama, romance, etc), beginnings and ends, settings – place and time.
Life is a story. Within a story. Within a story. Within a story. And so on.
What story do you tell?
What story do you tell about the story you tell?
In June 2020, Brene Brown was interviewing an author. The author had a strong voice. The strong voice was pushing against a problem. The strong voice was smart, well referenced, and positioned on academic research. If I recall correctly, I listened to another interview with the same author some time later – after the intensity of that initial time period had lessened. Enough time to recognize that pushing against a problem results in more of the same – no matter how true and intelligent the interpretation of the problem is. In the later interview, the author shared that she had been given advice from someone she respected that she chose to take: ‘You keep telling the story that plays you small and works against you. Write yourself into the story you want to tell.’
Truth told, I can’t exactly remember the details and I don’t want to go back and reference check. What stuck (and this was probably sometime in 2021) was ‘write yourself into the story’.
“Fuck the Patriarchy” may feel empowering to chant, but then what? What is it that you want? What is it that you are pulled toward? Can you tell that story?
Assuming you got what you want, what would it look like? sound like? feel like? Can you create that story? Can you begin to look for evidence that the story already exists?
I haven’t posted much this month. I am excited to facilitate checkIN and storyitell this fall to high school students on track to graduate this school year. I have been working on organizing the content and making sure it is relevant to 2023. It has been a minute since I have worked with this older age group. The most recent post to my social media included the most updated pdf of storyitell (hard copy available on Amazon books) along with an updated workbook. I have a group named File Sharing where I upload pdf’s. You can request access through my @sallysifer FB page.
The following are social media posts since July 9 (last blog) starting with most recent.
July 20, 2023
July 16, 2023
July 11, 2023
sally's blog. 
Leave a comment