Digital Storytelling Awareness & Practice for Growth.
We are all telling digital stories today. We love the Internet and we love social media.
Some of us are super aware that we are doing this, and do it on purpose very intentionally. Some are partially aware and some are unconscious. Either way, we are using words, images, video and sound to share the many parts of our lives. We want to share. We want to be heard. Sometimes these stories flow in a chronological way and sometimes retroactively. If you have been sharing this way daily or a few times per week using a social media platform then you easily have already created a pattern for “how” you are doing for this.
If we have awareness of our creating/posting techniques and patterns, and we are participating regularly, then why is it so hard to sit down and write a list of goals? Or a list of behaviors that we want to change or improve on? Why is there so much resistance to an exercise that would help us change direction for the better? I mean, we are already so accustomed to sharing on social media right? We want to be seen and heard there, so why not with ourselves?
Why do we separate and think that those same sharing skills, and oh yes, they are skills after an accumulated amount of practice (skill level and quality is another issue) cant be applied to specific personal development or to make changes in our lives?
I think that it all comes down to ego…
That intangible thing! Perhaps that is the metaphor, the interaction and discovery of the invisible part of ourselves and how much power we have with connecting to it.
We judge in advance that a goal writing exercise might not be fun, and more than anything else, it will show us what we are not experiencing at the moment. It makes that dream or desired thing seem really far away or far from ever having, doing or being. This in and of itself is an erroneous assessment. We are human, and our brains are known to get it wrong, a lot! We need to laugh and be kind to ourselves when we get it wrong.
Guess what, this is exactly what we are supposed to be looking at. The feeling of resistance and the ability to first simply accept it. Not resist it. Immediate resistance will result in more of that feeling and becoming immobilized by it. This will cancel the idea and desire of creating an exercise to write. Even though we will go back to posting pieces of our days on social media..ahem..
Its really not that hard to say yourself, “I have been some bad decisions. I am responsible for them. I have been avoiding making changes that would serve me better. I am aware of them and will get started.”
Make that list now. Make that list small. Start slowly. Problems and issues will not be solved overnight, however, a part of you inside will be alerted to something!
Getting started can be by making this statement above in whatever form that works for you. (I like to write it) After making this statement, its not a time to feel worse or beat yourself up. Its a time to be compassionate and patient with yourself. Be grateful for the awareness in and of itself.
(Changes are on the horizon for you. You wouldn’t be reading this if they weren’t)
So where can you begin a daily practice? Why not extend to the social media platforms that you are already using? By interjecting some positive statements about change will reveal what you are working to others, this will rally emotional support and also get you engaged in conversations with everyone else who is one step ahead of you and also those who are in need of the push to get started. So we give and receive support simultaneously. Give this a try, see what happens!
Keep me posted please!
