The Power of re-Writing the Stories We Tell Ourselves

Right after I gave birth for the first time, I was flooded with fears. The fatigue combined with a history of being around highly threatening situations (living through bombings in Israel in the 90's) made for a pretty good nightmare environment in my brain. In my dreams I would see my baby shot or worse and my awake time was spread with repeatedly checking the windows and door are locked and other fear-related behaviors.

Luckily for me, I was studying Neuroscience at the time and knew about the power of re-writing the stories I tell myself and within two weeks of starting to practice a new narrative, my nightmares stopped and I could gradually regain my balance.

We don't always fully understand the power stories have on us and how we can use them deliberately to facilitate change, increase influence, and generate things like collaboration. Here's a great article about healing nightmare stories we tell ourselves in our dreams (and the point that if we can revise them in our dreams, we can most definitely revise them in other areas of our lives):