How Powerful are Your Stories?

We all have stories embedded in our minds, whether we are consciously or subconsciously aware of them.  These stories, created from our life experiences and the learnings we received, define who we are. The stories we share with others can either have rich meaning, purpose and powerful lessons or they can simply bend someone’s ear. Do the stories you tell others expose a level of vulnerability to help people know that you are capable of empathy and understanding?

Story telling predates writing, with the earliest form being oral with gestures.  Modern day story telling takes many forms, among them fairytales, legends, folktales and extends itself to represent history, political commentary and evolving cultural norms.

As we move through our life’s journey, an important goal is to learn from all of our experiences—the good and the bad—and to share these learnings with others. This is how we eventually become wise elders. Are you on the path to becoming a powerful and wise elder?

Richard J. Leider and David Shapiro, authors of Claiming Your Place at the Fire: Living the Second Half of Your Life on Purpose, believe that in order to develop our wisdom and become powerful elders in the second half of our lives, we must claim our place at the fire at every stage of our life journey. We claim our place at the fire by making valuable contributions to our family and society. Powerful story telling is one important contribution, regardless of age.

How are you claiming your place at the fire as you move along your life journey? Here are some questions to help you craft wise elder stories: 

• Which events in your lifetime made a difference in the life you have led?
• What are the lessons you learned from the choices you have made?
• Were these choices in alignment or out of alignment with your values?
• With each of these major choices, did you follow or ignore your intuitions?

Practice telling your stories in a way that demonstrates your wisdom. We all have valuable contributions we can make through our powerful wise elder stories.

Deborah Perkins
Luminous Transformations
Google Voice: 480-788-7140