The (Negative) Power of Storytelling And 8 Ways To Use It For Positive Growth

6 min readJun 18, 2017

As I understand the way we use the power of story to entertain, learn, buy, sell and everything else, and consider the survival mind that constantly reacts and responds emotionally to stories — with a running imagination that compulsively thinks with stories (‘what should be’ or ‘what could have been’), it seems to me the power of storytelling can be the single biggest threat to humanity or it’s greatest asset.

As sentient beings, we have the power to choose which stories to believe in and identify with.

So being aware of the power of story as a mechanism, can help us catch ourselves as we identify with and tell ourselves stories all day long.

Stories and Human Cooperation

Humans have forever used stories to cooperate in large numbers.

They create the belief systems, values and culture to allow collaboration.

Religions, money, legal structures and nations are all stories invented by humans to cooperate.

This is the gift and curse of being a sentient mammal with conscious intelligence.

We’re the fittest species on the planet because we cooperate better than any other mammal yet this evolutionary dominance comes with a cost.

Given stories are so effective in teaching both ourselves and others to believe something, and our own minds are capable of planning for the future, and thinking of the past, it creates a lot of opportunity for misaligned expectations and reality.

The purpose of the piece is not to bash story telling, but to highlight how stories, as a mechanism, affect us and why they’re the most effective medium to cooperate while being aware of the negative side-effects.

And finally, show how to use it for empowerment instead of unhappiness.

Why Are Stories So Effective?

Stories make things real.

The parts of the brain that create the physical and psychological responses of emotion and experience are stimulated in the same way if it were actually happening.

The character becomes real. You relate and identify with their problems.

That’s why you’re able to get emotional during a movie even though it’s fake.

Yes, real stories like the news may be more effective, but it’s not that hard to make a fake story so intense and vivid that it feels real.

This is what Hollywood spends billions of dollars trying to sensationalize as much as it can to inspire you to ‘enjoy the movie’.

So in the case of learning to understand, stories are a better medium than reading power points or bulleted lists.

You ‘learn’ from the story, and remember how you feel because it made you emotional, rather than trying to file it to memory because you’re trying to learn.

The Power of Our Beliefs

If the human mind truly believes something to be true, it has the power to physically create that reality.

“The way our brain is wired up, we only see what we believe is possible. We match patterns that only exist within ourselves that we believe is possible.” Pioneering neuroscientist, Dr. Candace Pert

Pert’s research goes on to say that your ‘mind is in every cell of your body and therefore a part of your biology’.

This is massive.

Whether the belief is based on fact or fiction, it gives you the power to manifest reality. This is science, not philosophy.

Believe this and watch your universe change.

Thus, if we believe a story, any story, it has a very powerful effect on us — and when something has a very powerful effect on us, it creates the emotion within us to tell that story to others effectively.

This is why it’s important to ‘sell a product you believe in’ or work for a company who’s mission you believe in.

It’s not so much what the belief is, but the fact that you believe in it no matter what that makes you effective.

Why We Make Ourselves Suffer Because We Imagine Stories

Another gift and curse of human consciousness is the ability to imagine- and we imagine stories that create emotional responses.

Combine the power of belief with imagination and you have a combination that can either create strong feelings of depression, hopelessness, pain and suffering — or the opposite if we train ourselves to tell ourselves encouraging stories of empowerment.

We have a choice to tell ourselves the right stories, and the purpose of our lives should be spent working hard cultivating stories that empower and awaken both ourselves and the people around us.

Negative Storytelling Because We Plan For the Future and Identify With the Past

We also have the ability to plan for the future and think of the past which creates constant stories in our minds of ‘what should be’ in the future or ‘what could have been’ in the past.

The story of ‘loneliness’ comes to mind here.

This can be crippling if not observed.

Constantly ‘Observe the observer’ — J. Krishnamurti

Watching your thoughts and the stories you tell yourself is the first step in creating space to manage your internal responses and creating reality.

It’s a skill that takes a lot of practice.

Sad about the break up? It’s the story of what could have been.

Feeling down about your job prospects? It’s the story of not satisfying yourself or your parents (or whatever story you tell yourself)

Your objective reality is what’s actually happening vs. what our minds often tell ourselves often in the form of stories.

Add to that a mind that compulsively thinks in, and believes in the stories it’s thinking, and you have people stressed out day and night because they respond to stories that happen to them.

8 Ways To Harness Stories For Betterment And Growth

All you really have and will ever have in your objective reality is the present moment. Meditate on that daily.
Embrace past experiences as positive growth experiences that have shaped you and continue to shape you into who you are.
When your mind runs wild storytelling, and you’re spiraling, realize it’s your survival brain reacting and tell yourself ‘it’s the power of story’ and not what’s actually happening.

4. Believe the ‘story’ that you have control in what you believe, perceive and choose to identify with and therefore respond to emotionally.

5. Choose to make choices with your higher self, and believe the story that you have the power to control and shape your reality, not the lower self, the ego, that looks for pity, defense, and being right.

6. Choose to watch and create space around every thought and reaction you have.

7. Make a decision — decide you’re done identifying or believing that negative stories happen to you and that you can create your own objective reality by telling yourself positive stories.

8. Meditate on your story of the day

Every morning I wake up and tell myself that today’s story is going to be the story of a great day.

A firmly believed in decision point is a form of subconscious programming. When you’ve decided, all your action is aligned and signals your other actions to manifest that decision into reality.