Old Stories you tell yourself- are they serving you well?

The Impact of Old Stories: Breaking Free

Introduction:

Human beings have always been storytellers, weaving narratives to make sense of the world around us. These stories shape our identities, beliefs, and perspectives, serving as guiding principles for our actions and decisions. However, certain old stories can become deeply ingrained within us, creating mental blocks that hinder our personal growth and prevent us from moving forward. This handout explores the impact of these old stories and provides strategies to break free from their constraints

Understanding Old Stories and Mental Blocks:

Defining Old Stories: Old stories refer to deeply ingrained narratives about ourselves, others, and the world that we hold onto despite their potential to limit our thinking or in fact, without us even challenging them.

Mental Blocks: Unchallenged old stories may create emotional blocks by constraining our beliefs and our perspectives. In turn, we restrict ourselves from trying new opportunities and evolving into the person we want to be.   

Recognizing the Impact of Old Stories:

Fixed Mindset vs. Growth Mindset: Old stories often foster a fixed mindset, where we believe our abilities and traits are fixed and unchangeable. 

Fear and Limiting Beliefs: Old stories can instil fear and reinforce limiting beliefs that hold us back from taking risks, pursuing opportunities and growing into our full potential.

Confirmation Bias: Old stories can lead to confirmation bias, where we seek evidence that validates our existing beliefs and dismiss information that challenges them, limiting our ability to consider new perspectives.

Strategies for Breaking Free from Old Stories:

Self-Reflection and Awareness: Reflect on and identify the old stories you hold onto and how they influence your thoughts and actions-are they serving you well?

Question the origin and validity of these stories, examining whether they align with your current values and goals.

Challenging and Rewriting the Narrative: Challenge the old stories by actively seeking evidence that contradicts them. Replace limiting beliefs with empowering and growth-oriented narratives that support you.

Embracing Change and Growth: Embrace the concept of a growth mindset, recognizing that abilities and traits can be cultivated and developed through effort and learning. From there, identify what the issue is, create the necessary changes and evolve into the person you want to be. 

Seek out new experiences and perspectives to expand your understanding of emotional exhaustion and challenge old narratives.

Cultivating a Supportive Environment: Surround yourself with those who encourage personal growth, challenge your old stories and offer constructive feedback.

From there, engage in open and honest conversations with trusted friends or mentors to gain new insights and fresh perspectives and seek professional help when needed.

Practising Self-Compassion:

Be kind and forgiving to yourself as you navigate the process of letting go of old stories.

Understand that change takes time and effort, and setbacks are part of the journey. Celebrate small victories along the way.

We know that old stories, those stories that do not serve us well can be a barrier and keep us stuck in old patterns of thinking and behaving. Recognise when they are happening, identify them, create the desired changes and morph into the new narrative, the way that you want to be - the carer that is placing emphasis on their own self care…even before they care for others.