Once Upon A Time: Story & Mental Well Being

We naturally think of our own lives as stories, psychologists say. Changing the way you tell your scan help you handle whatever plot twists
come your way.
Jennifer King Lindley

We all enjoy a good story. Listening to tales growing up, be it about a mythological character or a real life character always keeps us engrossed. We are glued to our TV sets & run to Movie halls for the same reasons. Facebook & Twitter owe their success to our penchant for stories.

Stories are how we naturally conceive of our own lives as well. “Our lives are so complex that we need some way to make sense
of them,” says Jonathan Adler, PhD, a professor of psychology at Olin College of Engineering in Needham, Massachusetts.
“When we construct a narrative, it allows us to hold on to the important parts, filter out the trivial, and find a meaningful

pattern in it all.”

Our daily life becomes mundane with routine activities. however we forget that we are the protagonists & the narrator of a significant tale: our life story. The only hinderance to our appreciating the significance of our stories is that we are not reliable interpreters or narrators. When we are upset, we paint a grim picture with same incidents that otherwise would not have bothered us. we lose focus and tend to revolve in circles.

Researchers at Northwestern University found that people who tend to tell their stories with GRIM colours (Contaminated stories) are low on mental well being than those that weave stories with a "Silver Lining"

slight paraphrasing, a change of tone; to our story can help us become happier, develop better relationships & achieve more success.