When all comes tumbling down, what can you do? Share your story. If things physically or mentally all are getting too much and the possibilities seem limited, then almost always there is still something that can be done. Self-expression. There are different ways to express yourself. Of course it depends on your personal interests and tools at hand. Maybe you prefer drawing, spoken word or taking photos. Or maybe writing like me. It really helped me to gain insights into the turmoil going on inside while trying to coop with my (chronic pain) situation. And even more valuable; how it helped me to connect with peers going through the same thing. We can only find each others, if we share our struggles with others.

Ok, so how to go about this..

Share your story with yourself

Start with a diary. I have noticed that sharing my story can be hard, especially if my thoughts don’t make sense to me yet. Writing them out, helps me to gain insights which in turn helps me to share my story with others. Sometimes even before I start writing, I have no idea what will come out on paper. But once I start, the words flow and more thoughts and insights are spilled that I didn’t even knew I had. Or, maybe just hadn’t found a way to express them yet. As I said in a previous blog post, it can be easy to get stuck in the narrative we hold true of ourselves. But if I wanted to change anything, I first needed to express myself to me to gain more awareness of the stories I told myself. Me, myself and I it is (;

Share your perspective

As I started to write my story and also read a lot of others online. I noticed that we all have a different perspective. Some struggles that others were describing, I couldn’t relate to. So I realised that not everyone might identify with my perspective and also that my perspective isn’t the ‘right’ one. Anyways, isn’t that the idea of the word perspective, that there can be multiple? As I started to share my story, I tried to keep in my that my perspective is unique and so is everyone else’s. Which means your perspective is unique as well. To me this meant I wanted to be aware of nuances and refrain from saying, ‘my perspective or solution is the best’. To me this means being respectful or other people’s stories and focus on the main goal of just sharing mine.

Share your story with peers

Not everyone will relate to my story. And that is fine. All I wanted, was to find the people that DO relate to my story. That have an interest in yoga or scoliosis in the way I wanted it to be a part of my life. A phrase that has come up within my group of friends is ‘finding your tribe’. And guess what? The only way we can find other likeminded spirits is by sharing our own mind. How else can we figure out who are likeminded? So when you feel confident, or not confident at all like I did, start sharing your story with others. Either in real life or online. Whatever you want. It is your story after all.

Do to others as you would have them do to you

As I shortly touched upon reading other people’s stories online, I want to take this a little further. I believe that If we want others to hear our story, listen to theirs. If we want to cultivate understanding, try to understand. If we want others to be respectful to us, be respectful. Therefore, I will always support you in sharing your story and every bit of vulnerability, growth, setback or success will be a celebration.

Personally I have found this loving community on Instagram. And more and more in real life as well. Just do you, and others will find you.