A large white question mark spray painted on a weathered brick wall next to a street sign that reads 'Smith Street'.

  • Mindful Storytelling is a good fit if any of the following apply:

    • you have some familiarity with Buddhist thought and/or practice 

    • you suffer from an over active mind

    • you would like to make some sense of the events in your life

    • your heart craves less ego-dominated community

    • you are ready to process your stories and move beyond them

  • Mindful Storytelling is a practice to help you make sense of your life.  It helps to still the voice in your head that chatters away. It tames ‘monkey mind’.

    Fundamentally, there is no fixed you - therefore you are really just a reflection of the stories you tell yourself. If you are ready to move beyond this, then you can. The events of the past need not define the person you are now.

    You also become familiar with your stories expressly so you can tell them! Nobody wants to be told what to do, but, if they ask for your opinion, you can tell them a story instead. The message is contained therein and the listener has the experience of feeling like they have discovered the underlying message themselves.

  • The objective of telling a story is for the story to awaken something within your listener - as an aid to human connection. That means adopting a style of storytelling that invites the listener to stay in their body rather than going to their critical mind. The most effective way to tell an oral story is to adopt these techniques:

    Avoid summaries: you have all the time you need to tell the whole story so use it. 

    The reason people tell summaries instead of stories is because of fear of not being listened to. That feels really bad. In Mindful Storytelling you are joined by people who actively want to hear your stories.  

    Avoid analysis: Give the listener credit for being able to understand what the story means. It could be that what the story means to me is not what it means to you! Or it might be that the meaning of a story is ambiguous (which is a good thing!).

    Just say what happened - avoid feeling words. You don’t need them. You can show and not tell, people will know exactly how you felt without having to tell them. In standard storytelling, we use adjectives to create drama (e.g., "He was being incredibly lazy"). We also use 'feeling' words ("I was really angry") In Mindful Storytelling, the 'story' is told like a security camera would record it.

    If you cannot see it with a lens, it is an 'evaluation', not a 'story'. Instead of saying "She ignored me," the mindful storyteller says, "I sent three texts and did not receive a reply."

    Plan the story - divide it up into a beginning, middle and an end. Practice the story in your head as you go about your day to day business. You can use a mind map to get your thoughts in order and make sure you cover the most important points..

    Don’t bite off more than you can chew - Pick a specific time and place in your life when something happened that was important to you. Don’t try to cram too much in. 

    Get in the Zone - in your mind, go back in time and tell the story like it happened yesterday. Don’t waste time on worrying if other people are going to like the story. Avoid over-thinking it. If you find the story interesting - other people will too. That’s how it works.

    Bonus: Although I’ve earlier said that a story is told like a video camera captures it; you can imagine this is a magical sensory camera! Add some little sense details. Little details may not feel like much to you but they make a big difference. Think of the senses: sight, sound, touch, taste, smell. 

    • Sometimes stories come from hearing other people’s stories. Do you have the experience of listening to a story and thinking to yourself 'that reminds me of the time...' 

    • When preparing a story, take the theme (e.g. ‘My Broken Heart’) into your conscious mind and see what arises. If nothing arises, you could meditate on the theme - i.e. clear your mind of distraction and feel into the theme. 

    • Talk to a friend and explain to them what you are trying to achieve. Let a conversation develop.

    • Look at old photographs

    • My experience is that, for no specific reason, the memory of somebody I used to know, pops into my mind. I start thinking about what was happening at the time I knew them. Memories that arise out of nowhere are pointing to stories waiting to be told.

    • silent arriving and tea *

    • mindful check-in

    • group story - based on the session’s theme

    • shared lunch *

    • pair work

    • whole circle work

    • closing


    * in person only