Why I believe storytelling could make you happier.

That uncle and the nth repetition of his joke,

Those aunts and their banter on ol’ college furore.

We all have our favorite anecdotes,

That we have mastered over the years,

Retold and relived them without a bore.

We remember the past, we forget the recent,

Because creating memories too, needs commitment.

We add years, but the number of fun stories often don’t play catch up.

So here is why I think, your narrative to yourself, could be a deal maker.

Our brain tricks us,

False memories are a fact.

Each time you retell a story, it is not exactly the same.

It is a little more drama and a little more detail.

Each time it becomes more real.

What more,

we have free choice, in choosing our version

will it be amusing or dull and dry?

1st Jan 2017, I did this little exercise,

I recounted moments in the year gone by.

Moments that made me smile.

Revelation it was!

Centered around people, experiences and even random conversations.

None of my achievements got featured.

It wasn’t what I did, but how I felt that lived-on.

So I do a little more of what makes me happy from then-on.

Telling ourselves. our daily story is like setting anchors.

It is much like organizing ,

Putting up signboards and sticky notes.

It is correlating happenings with emotions,

Making it easy to find one another.

It is empowering, because these stories are ours to own.

Bookmarking them though, requires conscious effort,

Daily, weekly, monthly or annual recapitulation.

You may use a map on often traveled routes,

but do you need one to walk through the gate of your school?

Rethink how you respond to a mundane question like How your day was?

Rethink if it’s a mundane question, at all.

PS: Stories are forever!