Telling our stories can be cathartic. Telling our stories can also be hard, triggering, sad, infuriating, joyful, and a host of other experiences. Telling some pieces of our stories might be pleasant and bring smiles to our faces. We might even find ourselves with tears of joy streaming. Telling other pieces of our stories might recall memories of people and experiences that we would much prefer to forget. We might try to tell our stories and find ourselves angered, bawling, or needing to stop the storytelling.
When there are stories that we are ready to share, it’s important that we have the means to do so. Many of us naturally use our voices to tell, to share, or to process our stories. This verbalization may be easy, beautiful, or powerful in some moments, but it may be challenging or impossible in others. There are, thankfully, many mediums through which we can tell our truths, express our experiences, and process our emotions.
There may be stories that we do not yet feel comfortable verbalizing, but maybe we can use watercolor (a fast-paced, low-cost, and free-flowing medium that does not necessitate potentially stressful precision) to express the way the experiences leave us feeling.
Maybe we do not yet feel comfortable sharing some stories aloud, but maybe allowing ourselves the avenue of a free-form poem with no focus on rhyme or structure can enable us to put into written word the story that we have been holding within.
Perhaps the use of a journal, whether in a written storytelling format or as an unstructured “brain dump,” could allow us to, as key elements of our routines, share our stories, thoughts, and feelings.
Perhaps a visual journal using colored pencils, pens, markers, or paints could do the same.
Perhaps we could tell our stories through music, through play, or through drawing in the sand.
Perhaps we could unpack our tales through mediums that we have not always utilized automatically.
Perhaps we could explore expression.
Perhaps we could nurture and honor ourselves through expressive liberty.
Perhaps we could nurture and honor ourselves through expressive liberty.
Perhaps we could tell our stories.
Contributed by: Merrell Miles, Intern
