I was talking with someone recently about something very painful and very difficult they had experienced. They paused as they came to a particularly challenging moment in the story and said to me, “Saying it out loud makes it more real.”
We depend on our stories. We believe the stories we tell ourselves; we understand and take control of our lives and the world around us through our stories. The people closest to us, who we trust the most, are the people who listen to our stories. We say things out loud, and the stories become real. We hold onto our stories, protecting them from efforts to change them.
Our stories are important; they express who we really are. It can be painful and difficult, and it can be an experience of great joy, to tell our story. Each time we share part of our true story it becomes more real to us.
Each time I tell my story out loud I understand the experience of living it in new ways. Speaking it into the lives of other people helps me recognize and appreciate who I am in new ways. Telling my story, and finding people who will listen, builds community and deepens my sense of who I am.
Living life out loud makes it more real.
You tell me your story, and I listen. Together we explore our deeper selves, bringing things to the surface and making them more real. We discover our core values and turn them into our actions. We turn our memories of the past and our hopes for the future into something we can use in the present moment.
How will you live life out loud today?
Who is eager to tell you their story?
[Image by Orange Steeler]
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