A story is something that comes out when we arrange images and/or words to represent events and ideas, as a way to communicate with others.
All stories have some basic elements:
- Theme or idea – what do you want to communicate?
- Character – who is the person, or the humanized animal or thing starring the story?
- Setting – when and where is the story taking place?
- Conflict – what does the character need to do or achieve?
- Plot – what are the actions and events taking part in the story and its resolution?
- We, human beings, have been telling stories since thousands of years ago, when we started using language or something closer to a combination of snarls, growls, moans and signs. Those human beings were the first storytellers in history. They shared important messages and lessons for their survival and also for entertainment.
And they become better storytellers with the experience. They learned how to better capture and keep their audience attention, by adding tension, hiding information and rearranging parts or the story.
We haven’t stopped sharing stories. In fact, we eagerly consume all kind of them in all the available formats and media. Our utterly connected society has filled our reality with an endless quantity of them, that we find it so hard to pay attention anymore, unless something great catches our emotions.
Storytelling, the art of telling stories, nowadays could almost be considered a science. Thanks to neuroscience we are beginning to understand how stories change the chemistry in our brain and bodies, by sending certain hormones in our blood stream our actions and beliefs become different.
Our life is deeply influenced by stories, whether we are conscious or not about it. We teach our children values through storytelling. We use it in advertising to get to the heart and deepest consumers’ motivations, and make them love us (and, of course, buy from us). We can use storytelling to lead our teams, and more effectively share our vision and values with them.
But my favorite one is storytelling as personal development tool. Storytelling can help us change our belief system and our values. Thanks to storytelling we can connect more deeply with others and have more meaningful relationships. Thanks to storytelling we can understand ourselves a bit better; it can help us dream and project our aspirations, desires and dreams. Storytelling can help us working towards our goals, by influencing the way we perceive our reality and, therefore, be compelled to act the way we need to act, avoiding limiting attitudes.
If you would like to read and share contain like this join our storytelling circle.
Photo by Andrea Bertozzini on Unsplash.
coaching narrativo 