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Hi, I'm Sam.
Welcome to Radio Headspace.
If you've listened to my past episodes, you know that I love research, especially about the human brain.
And I was recently poring over some research that attested to the importance of our personal narrative as a measure of our mental health.
Now, our personal narrative reflects how we tell the story of our lives, the meaningful moments and big transitions that we've struggled with and grown from.
When our personal narrative is cohesive, reflects that we've thought deeply about our life experiences and have made sense of it all.
When our narrative is incohesive, it reflects our blind spots, unexplored and unprocessed moments and memories in our lives that may feel too daunting to confront.
The fact that a cohesive narrative reflects mental health makes total sense.
It's a reflection of how much time and energy we've devoted to knowing and understanding ourselves, making sense of experiences and challenges and getting clear on how we've grown from them.
In my mindfulness teacher training at UCLA, we dedicated a good deal of time to a practice called wayward seeking mind.
It sounds mysterious, but in essence it involves giving each person our full attention while they describe their life story, giving their personal narrative uninterrupted to whatever extent they want to.
After someone shares their story, we can ask questions about what we've heard, and that helps the person to reflect on their personal narrative.
Sharing our story and being witnessed with such deep attention helps us to understand ourselves better.
I often say that we need each other's curiosity to get to know ourselves fully.
We can observe our own patterns, thoughts and emotions, but there will still be things we miss without the feedback that others provide.
As we look at our own experiences with curiosity, we allow challenges and setbacks to be medicinal.
And by that I mean we can see and reflect on what we learned from those challenges or how we were able to cope with them.
Our personal narrative helps us to see where we've had the opportunity to grow and change.
And confronting our stories and thinking about why we did certain things can help us heal from the pain of the experience.
Because if you know why something happened, it's easier to identify how to find ways to resolve it instead of blindly trying to get closure.
And, of course, if you feel that you need a professional to guide you through these emotions, please reach out to a therapist.
If you want to try an exercise to create a personal narrative, you can take time to share your life stories with others.
Just like my training, you can make time with someone you trust, whether it's a partner or a friend, and share your story with them.
And then let them ask you questions about your story so that you can reflect.
Afterwards, have them tell their story and then ask them questions out of curiosity.
You might be surprised by what you learn, and you may even form a deeper connection with that person, knowing that you're helping them to learn more about themselves and showing that you care and that they matter to you.
You can also try journaling.
When we write about and share our life stories, we encourage clarity and cohesiveness.
Here are some journaling prompts that I like to work with.
Describe a moment when you overcame a challenge.
Describe a time when a core belief of yours was changed.
Describe your relationship with your immediate family and how it's evolved over time.
And it's normal to feel a little apprehensive about such deep introspection.
But the more we practice, the easier it is to connect with ourselves and our stories and revel in how far we've come.
And if you're looking for a great meditation to pair with any of these exercises, there's a compassion for our story practice in the Headspace app.
That's it for me for today.
Tomorrow is all about how to deal with boredom, so stay tuned for that.
Thanks for listening and I'll see you then.
Hello, Spotify.
We interrupt your playlist for an important Journeys announcement.
They say a remix never hits like the original.
We took that personally.
Gus Dapperton covered You Get What You Give and recreated the OG video.
Click the banner, turn it up, forget the rules.
This is your anthem of self-expression.
Journeys, life on loud.
