The Power of Storytelling in Personal Development
In a series of blog posts I will write I intend to invite you into discovering the power of storytelling and how important it can be in learning to move through life’s transitions. In addition to being a writer on personal development and beyond I am a storyteller by profession. I am interested in how other people use the power of storytelling to invite change in their lives and other peoples lives. I have over a number of years listened to keynote speakers who have used stories to illustrate points in their talks. I have to say that most of the stories I have heard leave me unimpressed. In response to this experience I have decided that I will share with you a series of stories that both irritate and inspire me. This is so you might then be able to choose which story you invite into your psyche and heart and from which you can live a wild and precious life. In this way I hope to share with you the real power of storytelling to inspire you in living your one wild and precious life.
As a writer and storyteller I hope I understand the power of storytelling and the power of metaphor and symbol that is invited through language. As a writer on personal development and beyond I love language and the power that it has to change one’s world view. One writer who I love and whose writing inspires me is Ben Okri. Here is what he writes about the power of storytelling in his poetic and eloquent way from his book A Way of Being Free
The old storytellers were the first real explorers and frontiers people of the abyss. They brought the world within our souls. They made living within and living without as one.
Here is the true power of storytelling. It makes living within and living without as One. The power of storytelling creates within the teller and the listener a kind of sacred unity and an invitation to move beyond opposition into unity. There are motivational speakers telling stories that are, in the words of Ben Okri, poisonous stories. These are stories that invite, not so much unity, but deeper division. In this series of the Power of Storytelling blog posts it is my intention to share with you my take on how you might use the power of storytelling to invite the full potential of what it is to be human and to do this through personal empowerment and a sense of compassion.
I recently discovered a story on a website of a young woman who is an inspiration to me. This young woman writes a blog called The Personal Excellence blog and it is an excellent blog. Her take on the story called the Howling Dog is one that invites awareness of our resistance and the pain that such resistance causes in our lives. This story of the Howling dog is what would be called a teaching story. It is the kind of story that might be used by motivational speakers to emphasis a point in their motivational talk. Having said this I wondered why I felt so angry when I read this story. So I decided to find out why I felt that way by writing about it and sharing what came up for me in reflecting upon this story. I also wanted to use the true power of storytelling to add value to this story and to invite you the reader to reflect on the story and end it in a way that inspires you in higher ways.
Here is the story that was featured on the Personal Excellence blog. It is called The Howling Dog.
Tom just moved into a new neighbourhood recently. He liked his house and his environment, but there was one thing he didn’t get.
His neighbor, Mr Tan, had a dog that kept howling non-stop. Literally. Day in, day out.
“Auuuuuhhhh………. Aaaauhhhh……….”
Initially Tom thought the dog was just going through a phase, so he ignored the howls, thinking it would eventually stop.
But it didn’t. It continued howling.
“Auuuu…………auuuu………..Auuuhhhhh…….”
1 day passed. Nothing changed. 2 days passed. Still howling. 3 days. 5 days. 1 week. 2 weeks. 1 month. Still howling, with no signs of stopping.
“Auuuhhh………….Oouuuuuhhhhh…….Au au auuhhhhh..”
Finally, Tom couldn’t stand it anymore. One fine day, he walked over to Mr Tan’s house to see what was going on.
Sure enough, there was the dog, sitting at the front porch, howling pitifully to whoever was walking by.
“Auuuhhh…Ouuuhhh….Auuuuuuuuuuuuuu………Au au au auu au au auuuuhhhhh….”
On the other hand, Mr Tan was relaxing on his bench at the lawn, leisurely reading his newspapers and sipping a cup of coffee.
Wondering what was going on, Tom walked up to Mr Tan.
Tom: “Hi Mr Tan, is that your dog?”
Mr Tan: “Which dog?” He glanced around. “Oh that. Yep he’s mine.”
Tom: “Why does he keep howling?”
Mr Tan: “Oh, that’s cause he’s sitting on a nail.”
Tom: “Sitting on a nail?!?” Tom gave the dog a bewildered look.
“..Okay… so why doesn’t he just get away from the nail then??”
“Well, Tom………”, Mr Tan took a slow sip of his coffee before replying.
“…That’s because he doesn’t find it painful enough yet.”
The first question for me as a storyteller is this.
Does this story leave you feeling inspired.
The answer for me personally is, “No it does not.” The story is intended to invite you to consider your relationship to resistance in your life but it is only really half a story and does not invite the full power of storytelling. When you listen to a story, read a parable, read some wisdom teachings one thing to remember is that every character and every image in the story is intended to represent an aspect of yourself. In the story of Beauty and the Beast you are Beauty and you are the Beast. In the story of Beauty and the Beast there is opposition. There is beauty and there is what is considered to be non beautiful and even frightening. The story goes on to emphasise the power of Love to transform what is in opposition into what in storytelling is consider sacred unity. This sacred unity is represented in many fairytales as the marriage between the Prince and the Princess. This invitation to the marriage of opposites within you is the true power of storytelling and it is intended to be the primary invitation from storytelling.
The story of the Howling dog has four main characters
- Tom
- The Dog
- Mr Tan
- The Nail.
This is really a story about suffering but it is not a story about overcoming suffering. This story would be like the Buddha finding the first noble truth, being the fact that there is suffering, and leaving it there. There is also a very negative connotation about this story. It leaves out a lot of interconnectedness and it ignores the responsibility we each have toward one another to alleviate suffering in anyway that we are able. If we are unable to do this, or are so focused on ourselves that it is a non-issue, then we are like Mr Tan or Narcissus who falls in Love with his reflection and dies because he cannot relate to anyone other than himself. These people are no model for anyone interested in personal development and certainly no model for anyone interested in the beyond of personal development.
Echo and Narcissus by John William Waterhouse
Let me confess something that is pertinent to my reaction to this story. I call it a reaction because this is what it was. I confess to be an animal lover. I confess to being a devoted dog lover. In this story, as in many other stories around the world, the dog as a symbol represents unconditional love. Anyone who has ever had the privilege of living and loving a dog will know this. Symbolically the dog represents the dynamic within you that loves unconditionally.
What about the owner Mr Tan. Would you in all seriousness want to be Mr. Tan. Has Mr Tan something to teach you that you value. Do you value the allowing of suffering for sufferings sake. If I where Tom I would has serious words with Mr. Tan. For one thing I would ask
Who left the nail around for the dog to sit on?
Dogs are creatures of habit. They have their routine and they have their places where they go to sit or lie down. Maybe the nail is bent. How does Mr. Tan know that the dog is sitting on a nail. Has he looked to see what the dog is sitting on and if so why has he left the dog to sit on the nail? The only logical answer is that the man has unresolved masochistic tendencies and loves to see and connect with suffering because he is too lazy to get off his Mr Tan ass and do the right thing. Mr. Tan doesn’t seem to consider the fact that one of the most problematic issues in communities is when one member of the community leaves their dog to bark or howl at anytime of the day. My take on this story is that Mr. Tan has nothing off value to teach you about suffering because he does not teach you how to alleviate it. In fact he seems to quite enjoy the suffering of sentient beings who are able demonstrate the love he so obviously seems to be devoid off.
In motivational kind of story that is used to illustrate the power of storytelling we are not told what Tom did. He seems only to care that the source of the irritation has been discovered. He does not act out of compassion. He seems quite indifferent to the suffering of the dog. In the story of the Howling Dog we are left with the knowledge that the dog is suffering and might indeed continue to suffer because the nail might be bent and cannot be removed without help. This is often what happens when we are deeply wounded and that wound remains unconscious. This story doesn’t offer any help at all. What would you feel like if you went to Mr Tan for help with your issue of suffering. My advice is to avoid the Mr. Tan’s of this world and there are many of them. They come in all guises and they will demonstrate what suffering is but they won’t get off their own nail.
If you are going to choose to use the power of storytelling for personal development and beyond choose a story that inspires you and invites you into your highest good. Such a story is Beauty and the Beast which is a story of the power of love to transform the opposition within our lives. Choose a story from mythology that has lasted a long time and has secrets to reveal to you. When using the power of storytelling choose a story that invites those uncaring parts of yourself to be alchemised into Love and into unconditional love. If you see a dog sitting howling then also be careful. A dog in pain is a dangerous dog and out of its suffering will not be the dog it normally wishes to be. Learn to approach this howling dog with sensitivity. Become a Mr. Tan with compassion.
What about Mr Tan? It is my considered opinion Mr Tan needs therapy. He needs help to recognise that he has a responsibility to care for himself and others and especially for those animals in his care. He could start by paying attention to where he leaves nails lying around in areas that are used by others. I wonder what his wife would have said if she had stood on the nail left lying around. I suspect that Mr. Tan might not have a wife, or have neighbours who care and appreciate him. He lives a life where he seems to teach others through pain and aggravation and leaves you at a point where unconditional love is howling to be taken of the nail of the very sense of separateness that is the major cause of suffering in the world.
Choose well the stories that you invite into your psyche. The power of storytelling is very real. This is the power of symbol and metaphor to take you into living the transformed life. Simply because you hear a story from someone who promotes themselves as a keynote speaker or personal development teacher does not mean that they have integrated their personality into the sacred unity of beyond. THis includes myself. In this story of the howling dog you are Mr Tan, you are the dog and you are Tom as the observer. Let your Mr Tan be one who accepts the responsibility of owing the dynamic of unconditional love and responding when appropriate. Let your Mr Tan become the direct experience of the wisdom mind within you. Pain teaches avoidance and not expansiveness.
If Mr. Tan was more responsible then the dog would not need to howl because of Mr Tan’s strange response to obvious suffering. How would you feel about this story if the story featured, not a dog howling, but a child crying? The metaphor is the same but somehow you might not be so ready to take on the teaching of Mr. Tan. Would you remain silent and say nothing about the suffering of the child?
Silence by Henry Fuseli
In this series of blog posts on the power of storytelling I will be sharing with you another story that I heard at a seminar called 20/20 vision. This was a story told by the keynote speaker who was there to invite a vision for our community for the year 2020 and beyond. I left feeling depressed at the invitation that was presentedbeing the way forward into a vision of the future. It seemed to be just more of an old paradigm that I try to discourage here in this personal development and beyond blog and for me personally dishonoured the true power of storytelling that invites unity and revelation rather than a onesided view of what it means to be successful.
You are a wonder tale. The power of storytelling is there to invite you into the realisation and revelation of the wonder you are. You are here, not only to tell the story about your personality, but to live, love and gift that story of who you are beyond the personality for the highest good of all. It is important, therefore, that you align your mind and heart with stories that are aligned with the universal drive to higher and higher love making. The story of the howling dog is intended to be a story about suffering but it is only half a story, and for this writer and storyteller, not one that I would use to inspire anyone to become the wonder tale they are here to be.
If you are interested in making the power of storytelling part of your personal development and beyond then I recommend the following storytellers who inspire me and who leave me feeling alive and filled with the boon of compassion so that should I see another sentient being howling in pain then I humbly take action in whatever way might alleviate such pain. This then completes the circle. It recognises that We Are All One which it the title of another story that I will introduce you to in its fullness and which really shows you the power of storytelling to connect to the very best that you are.
OTHER GREAT CONTENT Here is some other material that will further your personal and spiritual development and your understanding of the various stages of spiritual development.
inspirational storytelling
4 STAGES OF SPIRITUAL GROWTH - The stages of spiritual growth is sometimes not easily identified, and we’re all of us are undergoing a transformation down this path, even if some of us don’t know it.
INFINITE BEING - Spiritual metaphysics articles to help spiritual seekers find inspiration, love and creativity through heart-powered consciousness.
BLISSITATIONS - At this site they are committed to making it easier, more enjoyable and more effective with guided meditations, visualizations, affirmations and other goodness to help turn your meditation into Blissitation!
