Your personal stories are treasures; ageless artifacts that help preserve your reflections of life. Stories help you to see that life is universal. Whether you’re looking at stories of challenge, fear, tragedy, heartbreak, or loss, or stories of lessons, celebrations, growth, achievements, love, hope, or faith; all of these make for a rich life and all make for rich stories!
Stories help you build connections between the past, the present, and the future. Your ancestors, parents, grandparents passed along life lessons to you and eventually these lessons will be passed along to future generations.
Why is this connection so important? It helps you to see the universality in the human story. When you are in the thick of it, stuck deep in your own story, questioning your own strength, questioning your connection to the outside world, feeling alone and isolated, and looking for hope, inspiration, proof, experience, empathy, and growth; it is this connection that helps you to reflect on yourself and see your own strengths. You are able to detach from your fears and look at the universal truths in order to integrate them more easily into your current situation.
Stories help take big, lofty concepts and make them more accessible and easier to integrate into your own life. You find hope for yourself when you see a story exhibiting hope in others. You can believe in strength for yourself when you see a story of strength in others. A good story helps you believe the hero’s journey is possible for you too.
Family stories and personal memories let you stay connected to those moments in the past where life was lived - real life, not fiction. And when you look at these personal stories you will still see the same lessons, the same story arc, and the same character growth and development that you see in all stories, but these will be even more powerful because they are real and they belong to you.
I know this because I have lived it. It is why I have been taking the time to record my own stories, and why I am so passionate about helping others do the same. No matter who you are or what you’ve endured in your life, you have stories that need to be told for your own growth, as well as others. Your stories matter.
How will you begin to collect these treasures and artifacts for yourself and your future generations?
If you’d like help beginning your personal stories, please sign up for my free resource Family Tree Story Starters here! You will also receive weekly tips and inspiration.