“to tell a story is not simply to give an account of something but to change our relationship with it; to listen to a story is to allow the possibility of being changed by it” (Grant).
There’s certain things that happen in our lives that we shy away from remembering/reliving. We keep them close and buried deep, never to be spoken of to anyone. We all have these moments of shame/guilt/trauma/etc. that we’ve committed to take to our graves. Sometimes these are memories that weigh us down.
Have you ever had a stressful day and called your best friend or your mom or partner or just someone you deeply trust and ranted their ear off? Talking through stuff gets it off our chests and allows us to move on with the day. Life happens again and again and again and this continual relief cycle is what keeps us going. This is what helps us not get consumed in the anxiety
Why We Care
The Holistic Healing Network was created in the hopes of helping people in our community gain easier access to the holistic healers in our area as well as build a sense of community for the people in our neighborhoods who would benefit from further information about natural healing practices and techniques.
Talking and relating to each other heals us both individually and as a community. We are all parts of a whole. Why shouldn’t we know the other people who are also apart of the same whole? Communities have become distant and this can be attributed to a multitude of factors. It’s sad that we don’t really know or interact with our neighbors. Sure we live in a city, but that doesn’t mean we can’t know each other or interact with one another. We lock our doors and tell our kids to hide from strangers, which is completly necessary and fair. What is a little odd is the fact that we hide from those strangers too. The adults who are able to protect themselves and are able to understand that strangers are aquaintances we don’t know yet.
We have to protect our families, this is true; but that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t get to know them and learn if there’s any need to be wary of them around your family as well as your community. To those who cannot stand busy bodies at all, I understand and I’m not trying to create more. We don’t need to all be in each other’s business, but be open to getting to know someone and making friends with people locally.
When I first met Lila, it was at Bliss House (San Antonio Meditation Center). I had learned about this nonprofit and their blissful Sundays on campus at UTSA. Being the bookworm that I am, a table handing out books for donations was the hi-light of my day. Not to mention, I’ve always been a spiritual person interested in meditation and things of the sort, and these were meditation books. To be honest, I was so excited about the books the first time I came across the table that I didn’t get a chance to see the flyer advertising Blissful Sundays, but I had a second chance meeting with them a few weeks later. I didn’t know exactly what to expect when I first attended, but the high vibrations and welcoming atmosphere was absolutely wonderful. As I have continued to go to Bliss house, Lila has always been an amazing cook and teacher. She’s also a naturally caring person who gets to know everyone who attends Bliss house events. We’ve previously discussed my degree and what I wanted to write about, and one day Lila brought up her idea for the Holistic Healing Network. She asked me to help her do the writing for the website and to help her with this project, if I was interested. She was giving me the opportunity to write about the exact topics I was interested in learning and sharing with others. She gave me the opportunity to achieve a long term dream of mine to write for a website. Not only that, but she was giving me the opportunity to take my dream beyond what I thought it could be before. Obviously, I agreed and we both dove into this project together. This has been and continues to be an amazing and life changing experience.
In order to build a community here, both me and Lila know it’s important for the voices of our community we’re helping to be heard. We want to hear what you all have to say about our goals and how we’re going about achieving them. We also want to learn about y ’all’s experiences with holistic health, both positive and negative. We want to get to know you, and we want all of you to get to know us and all of each other. We are all in this together: life, society, working toward retirement, slowly dying, etc. All of these cycles we are living don’t feel as difficult with the knowledge that we’re not alone and the feeling of support that comes from community.
Sharing personal stories is one of the most powerful healing source in human history and existence. HHN’s personal goals include building community amongst the people of San Antonio, so we must utilize this tool together to not only build that community but to come together to heal it. Slowly, but surely, we can reach anyone and everyone around us who are open to building healthy relationships and routines in order to increase their content with their lives and promote happy and healthy living.
Bonding with each other in this way will allow us to better understand one another as mutual voices in the community and as possible friends who can relate to us.
“A team of scientists at Princeton, led by Uri Hasson, had a woman tell a story while in an MRI scanner… They recorded her story on a computer and monitored her brain activity as she spoke… When the woman spoke English, the volunteers understood her story, and their brains synchronized. When she had activity in her insula, an emotional brain region, the listeners did too. When her frontal cortex lit up, so did theirs. By simply telling a story, the woman could plant ideas, thoughts, and emotions into the listeners’ brains…Hasson also looked at listening comprehension. He found that the more the listeners understood the story, the more their brain activity dovetailed with the speaker’s. When you listen to stories and understand them, you experience the exact same brain pattern as the person telling the story” (Psychology Today).
By sharing our stories, we can quite literally align our thoughts and emotions with those of others. This neural synchronization fosters empathy and understanding, allowing us to connect on a deeper level. For the Holistic Healing Network, this insight reinforces our belief in the power of shared narratives. By telling our stories, we not only connect with each other but also create a space where others feel seen, heard, and understood.
How Story Sharing Heals Us Individually
“Stories can be very healing and many people benefit from getting the opportunity to pass on their wisdom to others… Resilience is strengthened by recognizing that we are all experts in our own lives and we all have something to share with others” (Psychology Today).
Basically, when we help each other grow we are making the community stronger. We first make ourselves stronger by opening ourselves up to share a personal experience. This in itself is extremely relieving. Getting a weight off your chest that’s been holding you down for so long is a deeply heartening experience. By making ourselves vulnerable (and getting through the story), realizing how far we’ve come in our own lives/experiences, and being able to use that annoying and terrible memory for the good of someone else: we become stronger.
Mentally
storytelling can enhance self-awareness, as individuals reflect on their own journeys and articulate their experiences. This process of reflection and sharing can significantly aid in the healing process, promoting resilience and personal growth” (HCCS).
When we’re reminded of who we used to be, we’re also reminded of the goals we used to have. These times of sharing allow us to reflect on growth and our progress with personal goals. We’re reminded of what used to be important to us, and then we’re able to think about whether or not those same things are still important to us.
“re-affirming your values… pausing to tell your story can be a good reminder of your priorities” (Psychology Today).
Some things we may find we couldn’t care less about anymore. Maybe we’ve accomplished some of those goals and maybe we find that we forgot to keep trying for some of them. This reflection gives us the kick in the ass needed sometimes to go back to doing what makes us happy and fulfills our souls.
Allowing ourselves the reflection also helps us see that we’ve grown somehow. We can see what good has come out of the past and see our lives as a story following a linear sequence of events. Knowing that we have stories, and therefore voices, helps us feel like we don’t just exist randomly with sporadic chaotic events happening to us for nothing except pain and torture. Telling our stories and reflecting on the good as well as relieving the bad helps us see our lives in a more positive, and mentally healthy, light.
“learning how to express yourself and learning how to think about what has happened in your life in a way that makes sense” (Psychology Today).
Emotionally
Closure and coming to terms with the way life has gone really takes a weight off your chest. Then you can actually cast the thoughts away in a healthy way and not in an unhealthy avoidance type way.
“Finding peace, finding hope… People who have found their voice, shared their story, and reaffirmed their values often find a sense of peace and a hopefulness that they did not have before” (Psychology Today).
Socially
Knowing other people who can relate to us helps us not only realize that we’re not alone but that we have more potential to make change together than we thought we had alone. We don’t just cure our lonesome shames, but we also stop feeling stuck and powerless.
Storytelling empowers individuals by giving them a voice and a platform to share their truths. It validates their experiences and encourages a sense of belonging, reminding them that they are not alone in their struggles” (HCCS).
Spiritually
Physically
How Story Sharing Aids Us In Community Building:
“When we meet others who share and understand our experience, we know we are not alone, that far from being a dark void, our path is filled with the vibrant glow of community” (Abby).
Nowadays, it’s weird to get to know your neighbors. There are some parts of the city that have their small communities, but why can’t we bring them all together? We are a lot of people together living in the same place and dealing with similar struggles of the same weather, government, roads and highways, police force, etc. Allowing ourselves to be separated limits us and our potential to make powerful change for the better. We can help heal each other and find trustworthy friends amongst each other.
If you’ve ever felt stuck in a corner and alone, just know that we’ve all been here. Wouldn’t it be nice to get rid or=f that feeling? Finding people who understand and hearing other people’s stories inspires us and gives us hope. This feeling is very powerful. This is what makes it such a great tool that we could all use if we allow ourselves to be open. HHN hopes to provide a platform to make that happen. Hopefully we can even set up events to meet each other and learn more together and get to know one another. Figuring out that a lot of people can also relate to not knowing much or being intimidated or still confused about natural healing while also hearing all the different paths and ways people have been led to learning more about it and utilizing this healing in their lives helps us gain more perspective. We’re not alone, there’s many people in this City who we can relate to on multiple levels, and there are other people here looking for help and change that would make for good friends or acquaintances in our lives.
Creating Positive Community Identity
“builds bridges across social, economic, political, ethnic, racial, and gender divides” (Living Justice Press).
Coming together to heal and relate means understanding each other past appearances and finding kinship in someone we may have never chosen to interact with before.
It brings us back to our humanity. Sharing stories humanizes us for each other (Living Justice Press).
It’s easy for us to get stuck in the day to day high aggression energies if our society. Sometimes we need to step back and have some empathy for one another. It helps bring us down to earth and understand we’re all going through it.
By sharing stories, individuals humanize their experiences, making it easier for others to relate and empathize. This connection through shared narratives helps dismantle the misconceptions and prejudices that fuel stigma” (HCCS).
(Merge/delete?)
Encouraging Inclusion and Taking Action
“It encourages an atmosphere of humility ad compassion, as participants recall similar struggles or times when they felt similar ways” (Living Justice Press).
We don’t have to feel judged or judgemental being around each other. We have the ability to create a safe space from the people who make us uncomfortable in the first place and find solace in one another. With no other requirement than to be ourselves, and we relate to each other with our past and present realities.
For communities, storytelling acts as a catalyst for change, promoting awareness, understanding, and support for mental health initiatives” (HCCS).
How We Can All Use This Knowledge In Our Daily Lives
Narratives shape our lives, and story-sharing is a natural hobby that heals and inspires those who participate in it. Sharing pieces if our lives and past can be a scary practice, and it is completely fair that some of us may not want to allow ourselves to be vulnerable in that way. What we have to consider, though, are the consequences.
Our stories have the potential to make a real difference in somebody’s life; albeit a stranger, but you’re still able to have an impact on another human on a journey just like you are. We have no idea the potential hope we could inspire, or even lives that could be saved. By not sharing meaningful moments in our existences, we miss out on that chance to make a difference and inspire hope.
We also may lose out on the chance for self- healing to occur through the process of story-telling. The act of sharing and feeling heard and empathized with helps us to talk about subjects we’ve refrained from talking about. There are memories we keep bottled up inside, and this is not a good habit to continue reinforcing; because these topics can become aversive to us all together and promote continual unhealthy avoidance. Talking things out may bring about more memories you had forgotten, bring understanding to why that may have happened, or perhaps allow us to understand our past from a different perspective. The act of sharing is in itself a cathartic activity, and the speaker is able to let go of the feelings they had been holding onto, that may have been restricting them.
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