✨Welcome to SHE Asked: A Series on Powerful Storytelling

Ever wonder why you feel stuck in the same patterns despite your best efforts to change? The answer might lie in the stories you tell yourself.

Welcome to the She Asked podcast, where we dive deep into the transformative power of storytelling. As your host, I'm thrilled to introduce you to a revolutionary approach that distinguishes between merely living your story and actively authoring it. Drawing from my decades of experience as a therapist, meditation instructor, personal chef and mother of three - I've discovered that our narratives quite literally shape our reality.

In future episodes, we'll explore this technique in depth and feature conversations with guests who've used storytelling to overcome challenges ranging from grief and divorce to aging and immigration struggles. My goal is to offer tangible tools you can immediately apply to shift your perspective and become the hero of your own story. While we can't always change our circumstances, we absolutely can transform our experience of them.

Ready to rewrite your narrative and change your life? Subscribe now and join me on this journey of transformation through the art and science of storytelling.

annamcbride.com

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hi everybody, welcome to the she Asked podcast with
Anna McBride.
I'm so glad you're here in ourfirst recorded episode.
This is the podcast where we'regoing to be exploring the power
of storytelling, how to rewriteour narratives and change our
lives.

(00:24):
Storytelling how to rewrite ournarratives and change our lives
.
I look forward to sharing withyou stories from all walks of
life, where people will besharing about their hardships
and how they made it throughoffering what I describe as
practical hope, by offering ustools.
We could all use some help inthis life.
I think I'm really glad thatyou're here, because I think

(00:50):
that most of us don't reallyunderstand what the difference
between the stories we tellourselves and the lives we're
living.
They're virtually the same andyet, if we can change the story,
we can change our lives.
You may not be able to changethe circumstances, but we will
change our attitudes about it,our perspectives about it and

(01:13):
therefore, our overallexperience of it.
So in this first episode, Iwant to tell you a little bit
about me and where the idea forthis podcast came from and why.
I think it's really importantthat we begin to unpack the idea
of storytelling, because somany of us struggle to get ahead

(01:34):
in life, and this is a methodthat I know will help you.
So a little bit about me.
I am a person of many differentexperiences.
I was a practicing therapistfor a couple of decades.
I also was a meditation andyoga studio owner.

(01:55):
I was a personal chef andteacher of cooking.
I am a mother of three adultchildren.
I've lived in other countries,in different states, and I grew
up in one of 11 children to twoparents.
One of them was an immigrant.
And through all of thesedifferent experiences I've

(02:18):
learned that the story I wastelling myself was either
holding me back or helping meget to where I wanted to be.
And actually a couple years ago, as I was going through a
divorce, I actually startedwriting a memoir and it was in
the process of writing thatmemoir that I learned that the

(02:41):
story I was telling was not verypositive, it wasn't helpful to
my divorce experience and it wasactually keeping me stuck and
unable to move on.
And in the course of beginningthat writing, I took some
classes around storytelling andI got introduced to a

(03:03):
storytelling community here inNew York City known as the Moth
and actually got up on stage andhave done it now almost like
over 40 times, where I sharetrue stories from my life and,
in the process, get to unpack alittle bit about what got me

(03:23):
into those situations, what gotme through and what was the
lesson that I took from it thegrowth.
And from doing that over andover again and progressing in
terms of my style ofstorytelling, I got to realize
that I really understand, nowbetter than ever, what it's like

(03:45):
to author the story and whatit's like to just be a character
in it, and it's those twoingredients that have helped me
to approach my life so that Ican become unstuck from
situations, grow through thisexperience and also know what
tools to reach for to help me ifI should need help, and some of

(04:07):
those tools might actually beother people.
So the idea for thisstorytelling process came out of
those experiences, and I can goback now and actually identify
where I got stuck, what I couldhave done differently and what I
will do from now on.

(04:28):
Whenever I feel that stuckednesswhich does happen still Yet now
I know I don't have to staythere.
I can move through there and Ican move on forward, progressing
towards where I really want togo, and I want to be able to
share that with all of you, sothat you, too, can learn the
power of the story that you'retelling yourself, how you can

(04:52):
rewrite it and then become thehero of your own story.
So, over the course of thesepodcast episodes, I will not
only be sharing with you thetechnique that I created.
I will also be bringing to youguests that have incorporated
this process into their ownlives, people that I get to meet

(05:14):
and talk to and learn frompeople who have struggled with
certain things in their life,whether it's grief or divorce,
or aging as an athlete, orcoming from another country
where they struggled there.
There are many topics where thisis really relevant, and I hope

(05:36):
to be able to address all ofthese from the storytelling
point of view.
I also hope to connect with you, our listeners, and find what
things really motivate you whendo you feel stuck in your life
and then we can address that infuture podcast episodes, so that

(05:57):
you, too, can put this processto work in your life and create
the life that you want.
Again, not focusing on thecircumstances that you came from
or the ones you find yourselfin, it's all about you, your
perspective, your attitude andwhat tools you are using to help

(06:19):
you move through and growthrough what you're going
through.
So stay tuned and if you likewhat you're listening to, please
follow along and subscribe formore.
So look forward to connect withyou shortly in the future and
until then, be well.