Why News Stories are NOT Facts!
🔎 SEPARATE THE FACTS FROM THE STORIES!!! 🔎
It was a little over 3 years ago I sat in a room with a hundred other people of various ages and backgrounds. 👥
We all sat quietly, listening to the teacher at the front of the room as he calmly worked with a distraught student that had come up to the microphone set up next to him. 🎤
It was the end of September 2017, and I was attending a weekend seminar known as the Landmark Forum. It was one of the most mentally challenging experiences I ever had. 🤯
And it wasn’t just me. It challenged ALL OF US in the room who participated that weekend! We were all introduced to ideas and teachings that challenged how we saw our lives and the world around us. 👁️
Without further details (I recommend you attend yourself), I want to share with you a teaching I learned there I’ve been using ever since…
🔎 SEPARATE THE FACTS FROM THE STORIES!!! 🔎
In a similar vein as my previous post ( https://bit.ly/2ZToyBm ), I want to share with you a realization that just BLEW MY MIND when I started seeing it reflected in everyday situations. 🤯
I share this because I believe THIS can be applied to so many areas of our lives! 👍
With this teaching, you can save yourself a TON of unnecessary stress, a TON of unnecessary worry, and take your personal self-control to an entirely new level! 😁
Now, without sounding too over-the-top, let me explain…✍️
I want you to imagine for a moment you hear about a nearby shooting on the news. 💥 You hear about the shooter’s personal background, how he ran from the police, and how he led the police on a car chase through 3 towns before crashing and being arrested. 👮
You hear from the cop’s interviews how remorseless the shooter was, the testimonials from witnesses about how terrified they were, and you are continually reminded how close the shooting was to your home. 🏠
The incident passes. The shooter is now in jail. End of story. 📘
Life goes on…but not quite! ☝️
Instead of leaving your front door unlocked like you used to, you now start locking it. In fact, you double-lock it! 🔒
Instead of allowing your child to go outside independently the way he used to, you’re now more hesitant to let him. You start feeling he needs more supervision, despite him having gone out hundreds of time on his own. 🛡️
And when you’re driving in your car, every time you’re about to drive past the area where the shooting happened, you find yourself taking a detour. 🚗
But wait! The incident has passed. The shooter is in jail. The danger is gone. 💯
So why has your behavior changed? Why is your mind acting as if the shooter is still out on the streets? 🤔
🔎 SEPARATE THE FACTS FROM THE STORIES!!! 🔎
One of the most important teachings I learned attending the Landmark Forum was THIS: Separate What Happened vs. The Story About What Happened.
🌟 WHAT HAPPENED: The Facts and nothing but the Facts.
📖 THE STORY ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED: The mental narrative created around the Facts.
What if I told you the news doesn’t tell you Facts? 😱
It presents to you a Story about the Facts, about What Happened. It adds an EMOTIONAL FRAMEWORK to look at the Facts through. 📖
Think about it: Would you really read a news story that just wrote Facts like…?
📰 “A shooting happened on [STREET] at [TIME]. The shooter was identified as [NAME]. The shooter drove a [CAR TYPE]. The police followed the shooter’s car through 3 towns: [TOWN #1], [TOWN #2], and [TOWN #3]. The car crashed. The police arrested the shooter. He is awaiting trial at [PRISON NAME].” 📰
If the news only told you What Happened, without emotion, without witness testimonies, without police statements, without personal opinions, without drama whatsoever…you would be BORED OUT OF YOUR MIND watching! 😴
I would be too! 😅
The same even goes for my posts! If I just gave you a list of facts without any emotion and passion (not to mention, no emojis), you would not have as much of a desire to keep on reading, would you?
It’s why I share Stories with you; we as humans LIKE Stories. It’s the same reason we go to the movies or read a fictional book. 👀
There’s nothing wrong with this. Stories allow us to experience a whole range of emotions we wouldn’t get to experience without them. 😊
So my point is: it’s not Facts alone that influence us, rather it’s the Stories, the Emotions around the Facts which influence us. 🙌
The problem is when all the Stories we hear about on a daily basis are negative. It’s when they start influencing us to do things we wouldn’t normally do without them. 👿
It’s when they influence us to start locking our doors, when they influence us to be worried about the dangers outside our home, when they influence our worst fears to take over our critical thinking, that it becomes a grave problem. 😨
The fact is, the incident has passed. The shooter is in jail. The danger is gone. Nevertheless, your mind has created an internal Story about your neighborhood based upon the Story it heard on the news. 📖
It may be illogical to assume there’s danger still outside your home based on 1 single incident and where the shooter was caught. But your emotions dictate to you otherwise, making you BELIEVE as if the danger is still near. 😟
🔎 SEPARATE THE FACTS FROM THE STORIES!!! 🔎
That is why is it SO IMPORTANT we distinguish these 2 things!
📌 So we help ourselves have a clearer look at situations and not through a lens of pure emotion.
📌 So we can remind ourselves of what to actually be concerned and not be concerned about.
📌 So we can challenge the internal Stories that fear creates in our minds around situations.
And this doesn’t just happen with news stories either! 😱
Think about situations you have with other people! I’ll give you 2 examples: 👥
🌟 WHAT HAPPENED: Someone says to you, “I appreciate you!”
📖 THE STORY YOU TELL ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED:
🧠 “They just said that to be nice.”
OR
🧠 “They’re right, I am amazing!”
OR
🧠 “They are weird for saying that! I’m not worth appreciating.”
🌟 WHAT HAPPENED: Your friend says he will be at your house in 10 minutes. He is late. He smiles when he sees you and says, “I’m sorry I’m late.”
📖 THE STORY YOU TELL ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED:
🧠 “5 minutes late, no big deal!”
OR
🧠 “Clearly he doesn’t care enough to be on time!”
OR
🧠 “He just is not a person I can trust to be on time anymore!”
⭐ You don’t remember the Facts; you remember the Stories you created around the Facts. ⭐
Perhaps I’m beating the nail on the head into submission here, but it’s because I want you to see how much these internal Stories control our lives. 👍
If we don’t control the Stories we tell ourselves, our Stories will control us! 😩
So the next time you see hear a story on the news, read a tabloid article online, or have a conversation with someone which fills you up with negative emotions, take a step back. 👣
Take a few deep breaths…🌬️
🔎 SEPARATE THE FACTS FROM THE STORIES!!! 🔎
Ask yourself:
🤔 What are the Facts this situation provides? Remember: feelings and opinions are NOT the same as Facts.
🤔 What are the Stories coming out of the situation in my mind? What is the meaning I’m giving to the situation?
Because when we continue to develop ourselves, when we continue to become more aware of the Stories we tell ourselves, when we see they are simply Stories we will then realize we have the power to change them. 💪
Because who doesn’t want to have more empowering Stories run their life?! 🥰
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