Telling my story - Using my voice
Next up in the “Telling my story” series is “Telling my story - Using my voice”. First in the series was “Telling my story - truth or fiction” followed by “Telling my story - Learning to Listen” you can find these in my blog listing here.
Okay, so we all use our voice in our day to day lives, in our work, with our families and friends. So what am I really talking about? I am talking about the emotional truth of the hard things that happen in life.
Society at large teaches me that I am supposed to be “happy” all the time. So, when I go to work, spend time with my family and friends I put on the “happy” front. As I walk through my day to day life, the hard stuff gets triggered from time to time. So, what am I supposed to do with that?
What I used to do is “not allow it to come out” and by trying to ignore it, I was actually making it stronger!
So years or decades later, I found myself walking around with a lot of unfinished emotional business. So, what do you do with all of that? I don’t want to bring this into my work world for sure. I might bring it up from time to time with my friends or family. I can journal about it, which is definitely a way at getting at some of the layers.
The thing that I found that worked really well, was to find a safe room where I could tell my story, feel my feelings and be acknowledged all at the same time. What a healing balm that turned out to be.
Here are some more things I learned by telling my story
Feelings are not facts. Emotions are important and if I don’t acknowledge and feel them, they get stronger. When I acknowledge and feel them they start to move and transform.
The only way out of the pain is through the messy middle. You have to feel it to heal it.
We are more similar than different. Everyone has a story to tell. One that we feel marks us. One that helps keep us stuck. The particulars of our stories are very different but, the feelings are the same.
When I used my voice and told my story, I was able to release stuck feelings and experiences. By telling my story I was helping myself. It also helped others who were listening.
I felt more comfortable in my own skin. I saw benefits in all aspects of my life. By telling my story, I found that it was easier to approach hard topics in my work, with my family and my friends.
If this resonates with you and / or you would like to try out telling your story, check out my upcoming workshop. You can find the details here.