Storytelling

As I’ve mentioned in my “About me”, my mom abruptly passed away in April of 2016. This was a pivotal and life-changing event for me as she was literally all that I had. She was a Filipina immigrant who raised me on her own. After she died, I found that journaling and writing helped me cope with my grief a ton. Being a child of an immigrant parent, there was no room for emotions; it was all about survival, so naturally, I was always surprised reading over past journal entries. Seeing my own thoughts, feelings, and self-talk on paper was a game changer for me.

Thinking about what should be my first blog post here prompted me to review and reflect on my past journal entries and I found it was again eye-opening to see how far I have come six years later. I found an entry that I wrote in February 2018 that is still relevant to my passion/mission as a licensed psychotherapist.

—-

February 4, 2018

“A few days ago, friend of mine who I just met this past year at and who I’ve quickly grown close to asked me “what does your mom mean to you?” and I was so stumped on what to say because I couldn’t come up with a phrase or specific words to describe it.  So naturally, I just started telling my story, actually our story to her.

Storytelling has become a source of vulnerability and empowerment for me.  I tell my story not to gain pity or sympathy, I tell my story to let people into my world and understand fully who I am.  I tell my story to continue to accept the realities and life circumstances I have endured.  I tell my story to reflect on the trauma and pain so that I can gain more insight and I can re-empower myself through reframing my experiences.

I tell my story to heal.

And that’s what I want to do with my life.  I want to hear people’s stories and how they got to where they are and how they are writing their stories.  Because I truly believe you are in control of the quality of life you live.  You may not be able to control what happens to you but you can control how you react, how you handle a situation, how you cope after a situation and how you think about/interpret that situation. “

So… what’s your story ?