Example Reflection – Storytelling

Challenge & Selection

Storytelling is an absolutely incredible tool that has helped me much to deal with some problems. I use  this tool in my home. I have a younger brother and sister in my family, and I have to spend most of time  looking after them, given this pandemic-time. When I have to look after them, we share stories for  multiple purposes. Not too long ago, I realized that our bond is not too strong, in terms of sharing our  feelings with each other. Also, as an introvert, I was facing different challenges to communicate with  people, and share my thoughts, even with my own family members. It was hampering my social ability. I  felt as if I was missing one of the most important aspects of being human, which is socialization. As a  part of solution, I chose storytelling, so that it can become easier for me to deliver my thoughts, and at  the same time, strengthen my relationship with my siblings. Storytelling is simply an act of sharing  stories. Often, when they need help with study, or I have to understand them, as a part of  communication, I use storytelling. I tell them stories of my own life, and others which I've heard from my  parents, to help them cope with some problems they face. I use storytelling, to break down my  emotions as a story to share. From the video in this course, what I deduced is that storytelling is a very  easy way not only to connect with people, understand them, but also to connect with myself. So, I chose  storytelling to deal with this challenge to overcome a little dark side of being an introvert, and to  connect more with my siblings, because I find it easy and effective.

Application

Well, the first time I got the idea of storytelling when I was watching a YouTube video, where a speaker  was telling story of her about facing domestic violence and how she divorced, going against the narrow- minded society. I felt that it was a great medium to encourage many people to stand up for themselves,  and against many problems of the society. By practicing storytelling at my home, I am able to teach my  younger siblings about the lessons of morality, and positivity. As far as I can tell, this has changed the  way I think, and my perspective in viewing a problem. It helped me to sow the positive culture, in my  home, of sharing thoughts, and being comfortable with speaking with people.

The best storytelling exercise we do is, playing different roles. Well, it's like a minor game. We assign  different roles to each other, like of a doctor, who is working on rural areas to help people, or a farmer  and so on. And, then we ask each other to share the (fantasized) stories about the best work they had  done in their respective fields. Getting into such character encourages my siblings to think creatively and  of course in an innovative way to create scenarios of opportunities in face of problems. Also, we give  each other a certain time period to discuss about the best and worst part of days, and connect them  with stories by thinking what we could've done to make those situations better. This caused us to have  strong perspective about certain situations, and certain topics.

Storytelling helped me and hopefully them to cope with problems they faced in the day, strengthen our  relation as siblings, and be comfortable sharing our thoughts, and emotions with others.

Insight & Approach

Well, I can't describe how much helpful storytelling has been to me and my family relations. The timid  and shy myself has now metamorphosed into an open human, who can now share and deal with a huge  range of emotional turmoil. I can now comfortably reason my opinion in front of other people, not only  my family. And, in case of my siblings, they have become more open to me, and the boring life has been  spiced up. In all, it has boosted my self-confidence, perspectives on certain things, my social relations,  communications, and my thought process.

After applying storytelling with my siblings, I found it affecting on other aspects of my life too. I was  once walking to my school for I missed my bus that day. On the way, I stood up against a mother who  was yelling and beating her child for a tiny wrong thing he had done. I couldn't imagine myself being at  that position, from a shy girl who couldn't stand up for herself to claiming right against the wrong thing.  Also, I found myself being less nervous delivering speech in class, and debating with a friend on any  topic and that also with strong opinions.  So, as an alternative approach, storytelling helps to provide  chain effect on multiple aspects of life. With that being said, I too think that storytelling helps in much  more areas of life, than only business.

As an alternative approach, I think I will apply storytelling in a bigger and broader area like social activity,  and delivering my opinion to people in larger platform to speak against the wrong doings in our society.  As an example, delivering speeches in school, and working collectively in certain problems might be an  initiation. Also, I will use storytelling along with visualization, to make the exchange process more  effective.

