I heard Brene Brown once used the phrase “The Story I’m telling myself. It was a way to start a touch conversation with someone. “Something happened, and the story I am telling myself is this.”
I’ve started to use it as a tool to process what I am thinking as well. When I am storming about some email I’ve received I attempt to stop. If I can change the story in my own head, the story I am telling myself, I can re-frame my feelings and responses. I can re-imagine the story as something else.
That time I got an angry email from a friend, the story I told myself was they were mad at me. I could have tried changing the story. Maybe the story was that they were reaching out for a moment of connection, their anger got in the way, and could not find the right words. Maybe my story could be about reaching out to connect with them and building trust between the two of us.
Notes For Kevin 