Your Brain On Stories

It loves them, and it loves healing through them

Photo by Nong on Unsplash

Imagine this: You're just looking out the window, maybe still sipping on your morning coffee, and suddenly, a story unfolds in your head. Maybe it's akin to a gripping novel and you feel like you are reading the whole thing in your head. Maybe it’s more like watching a movie about a wild adventure and you see lots of pictures before your inner eye (not everyone does, although many people assume seeing images is the norm when it truly isn’t).

And while that story is unfolding in your mind, your brain is doing a little dance behind the scenes…

Welcome to the fascinating world of story therapy

And no, you don't have to be scared of the word “therapy” in this context. Think of it rather like a spa day for your mind.

And because this is about telling stories, I’ll come up with a little story for you that will basically explain how story therapy works. And since I used to be a musical theatre performer, what analogy could make more sense than a theatre one?

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Imagine your brain as the theatre. If the curtains to your story rise and your characters step onto the stage, your neurons begin to buzz with anticipation. But they’re not the audience. They're more like the backstage crew, adjusting lights and props. And when the story unfolds and you begin to feel, your brain's reward centre basically starts to light up like a disco ball (I’m giving away my age here I guess).

There’s a lot more going on behind the scenes. A whole neurochemical symphony, if you will, adding the emotional soundtrack. Neurotransmitters play their instruments. There’s dopamine strumming the guitar of pleasure (I really can’t believe I wrote that, but who cares). Oxytocin wraps you in a sense of… warm fuzzies? Adrenaline, on the other hand, is a bit of a drama queen, but it’s needed for a bit of tension (there always has to be one, right?).

So far, so good. But sometimes, our brain clings to old sheet music or scripts—the ones that say, "You're not good enough" or "Life always ends up being a tragedy." And the soundtrack or script gets cacophonous. Enter story therapy for scribbling revisions and ironing out those bum notes. "Let's tweak that self-doubt line," it says. "Add a plot twist: resilience!" Suddenly, your story shifts.

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Plot Twists and Resilience Arcs

Life does throw us curveballs—breakups, setbacks, existential crises. But we can rewrite those chapters. Maybe for once, we’re not just surviving; we’re thriving.

Stories connect us. For aeons, we told tales to each other. That’s why it’s so important to gather people around us with whom we can share these stories.

You might think that all sounds good and well, but does it really hold water?

Yes, it does.

Narrative Therapy is a form of psychotherapy that centres around the stories we tell ourselves about our lives. It operates on the premise that our identities, experiences, and realities are shaped by the narratives we construct and believe in. Often, these stories can become limiting, which has the potential to turn into a mental wellbeing issue.

The core idea of Narrative Therapy is to help us recognise these narratives in the first place, and understand that they are not fixed. By examining and "rewriting" these stories, people can shift their perspective and open themselves to the possibility for change.

You can do it with a therapist if that’s what you need or want, but you can also do it on your own

Storytelling helps us gain some distance from our lives. Instead of getting bogged down in the minute details of journaling, it is possible to take up creative writing as a healing tool instead.

Writing a story gives you the creative freedom to reshape your experiences. You can look at your life from a fresh perspective, almost like you’re stepping into someone else’s shoes. This creative approach allows you to process what you have been, or still are, going through without feeling overwhelmed.

Instead of writing down the minute details of what’s hurting you, you create characters. You can inject humour or fantasy. You’re not reliving—you’re transforming your story into something that can be insightful and healing.

It’s a way to externalise your inner world, making it easier to understand and cope with.

So the next time you find yourself struggling with something, try writing it out as a story. Turn your problems into a plot, your worries into characters. You might find that this creative process offers you a new way to see your life and deal with what’s going on.

And since we’ve been talking about the importance of sharing stories: I’d love to hear if this is something you’ve ever tried, and if you found it helpful. Let us know about it via our chat or in the comments/notes, and I hope to see you there!