Thư Thủ Thỉ

Today, I watched a TED Talk called “How changing your story can change your life” by Lori Gottlieb while tediously slurping noodles. My life lately, in my mind, is no way out (lonely loop). The video seems like hitting the nail on my head, right time right place.

The speaker is a therapist who engaged with various stories but pretentiously calls herself “an editor”. And it’s actually not wrong. She suggests that when people are engrossed in their own point of view, their story becomes trapped and stuck. Backed with the prison bar analogy, the prison only focuses on the jail bars in front of him without noticing there are no bars behind. The prison isn’t in jail. In her quote, unquote “We are all unreliable narrators of our own lives.” So she found her mission to be helping the narrators change the characters, be in different shoes to open their vision, thus, changing their lives. “Life is about choosing which stories to listen to, and which ones need an edit.” When you are miserable, you will go into the tunnel and pick up all the things that bring you down. Nonetheless, we have the agency to choose what stories to relate to and tell to ourselves.

I love stories, listening to them, narrating them, and crafting them. But I have never thought how much it would affect me. I just think of them as the way to think out loud! Oh, that’s right! Stories are my thinking. Then, if I change the stories, I change my way of thinking and maybe I will feel and act differently, right? My realities can be molded! It’s a real “aha” moment! Normally, my life is a domino, one thing fails, and other things collapse. This is what often makes me dig a deep hole and jump into it. I know depression does not go in the blink of an eye. It takes time. But I am resilient, I am persistent in thriving and having a fulfilled life.

“The next time you’re struggling with something. Remember that we’re all going to die. And then pull out your editing tools and ask yourself: what do I want my story to be? And then go write your masterpiece.” Lori Gottlieb