When we feel emotions or hurt, our initial response is to create a story that protects us. It’s built into our genes, the chimp brain goes into protection mode.
We don’t yet have all the data and therefore we fill in the gaps and make up a story that we then believe is the truth. The story is based on protecting ourselves without having the full picture.
This often leads to the wrong conclusions, which we act upon and this can then lead to hurt and pain for others based on our actions.
A better and more challenging thing to do is to write about these stories on a daily basis, this way we get out all the emotion and we are then able to analyse the story and perhaps realise we do not have all the facts or data to come to the conclusions we did.
A daily writing journal has so many other benefits, but the biggest one is that we get a chance to re-write our stories and get to the real truths. If you need a place to write then check out 750Words.com
Thanks to Brene Brown and her continued brilliant work on worthiness, vulnerability, and wholeheartedness. We can learn how to lean into our emotions, own them, become curious about them and write a different ending.
Philip Dodson 