Getting hooked into stories

Our lives and our experiences are heavily shaped by the stories and narratives that we absorb from the world around us. These stories come from many different places: our families, our culture, society and the media, and they can include stories about ourselves, who we are, what we can and can’t do, and what is possible for the life we are living. Sometimes, the narratives we live by are helpful, for example, ‘I’m someone who is good at this’, ‘I’m the sort of person who can do this thing’. 

However, sometimes we can get hooked in by unhelpful stories about who we are and what we can do. When we get hooked by these stories, it can funnel our attention inwards, blocking us from seeing the possibilities around us or where we want to go in our lives. This can mean we get pulled in directions we may not really want to go in our lives, which can have a big impact on how we feel, and this can reinforce those stories further.

Bringing attention to this process through mindfulness skills can help us. Learning how to notice what our hooks are, can help us to step back from unhelpful stories, and allow us the option to make decisions about how much we want those stories to influence us in our day to day choices. It can also free up space for us to become more connected to helpful stories, those which may have been overshadowed by more dominant, unhelpful ones.

What stories do you tell yourself about who you are and what is possible in your life? Can you create space for any different versions? What would this look like?