Why do I invite everyone who takes my three-part signature course ‘Communicate Your Story’ to complete a short video about themselves and their vision by the end of Part Three?
As a student, I was taught that we no longer had a need for narrative. This was because the ‘grand narratives’ were all dead. We feel we don’t need any ideology or authority in whatever form, although we still need love, self-improvement, and physical sustenance i.e. the ‘small’ but necessary narratives. These perennial themes sounded too dull or insignificant to me back then.
However gradually and as a result of personal loss, I felt I needed to do something ‘big’ so as to control the future. I got a job that involved commuting to the other side of the world three or four times a year. I did this for eight years and didn’t understand why it didn’t make me happy. I had to be reminded that my ideal for my life was an illusion and a by-product of the grief of losing my parents. I, like all beings, needed the smaller things in life – love, self-improvement, and sustenance.
I discovered that I had enrolled myself in a story which seemed to work for a while but was getting me nowhere fast. The happiness expert Paul Dolan writes in Happy Ever After: Escaping the Myth of the Perfect Life that we can be very damaged by the stories we tell ourselves – in any area of our life, whether in terms of income, relationships, or wellbeing. We enrol ourselves in narratives that serve us to play a role in society, but we forget the vision we started out with at the back of our minds that will bring us joy. We are so habituated in our roles that we are not even aware that we are playing them anymore. It becomes like background muzak in a restaurant – you don’t notice the narrative because it’s part of who you tell yourself you are.
But we can only change the roles that are ingrained in our lives by changing the processes we go through on a daily basis. There are different methods for changing habits but the one I offer is gentle, subtle, and process-based. My clients become aware of the narratives they are attracted to and thus access more of their subconscious. Then, through listening to others’ stories and finally telling their own story, they find the inspiration to make the change that feels right for them. First, by working on their vision and daily routines in Part One of Communicate Your Story clients often notice a shift in perspective. This helps them make a shift in Part Two to change their processes so that by Part Three they can adopt creative strategies to write a new narrative for themselves.
It all starts by becoming aware of the story you tell yourself so that you can save your life from becoming that ‘poor player/Who struts and frets his (or her) hour upon the stage/And then is heard no more.’ (Shakespeare, Macbeth Act 5 Scene 5)
Communicate Your Story launches at the end of February. I can’t wait to share the video I was honoured to make with my friend Laura Wells about her experience with Communicate Your Story in 2021 – I’ll be sure to add it here very soon or you can sign up for my newsletter and receive it straight to your inbox.
Warmly
X Elizabeth Rose
