When I started this journey to learn about storytelling, I expected a lot of intellectual effort would be required to stimulate creativity, to think differently. However, I never expected storytelling to be physically or emotionally challenging. Consequently, I am so grateful for the support I find in the classroom and the materials.
I feel that I’m picking up many valuable insights from Doug Lipman’s Improving Your Storytelling. In some ways it reads like a reference book; but now, although the book still bears that characteristic, it also offers a wealth of knowledge about human psychology and behavior. For example, the section about voice I just read provided me with new and valuable information because I had never heard about things like tension affecting the quality of one’s voice. As Lipman pointed out, we know tension affects us but we don’t realize we know because we haven’t been paying attention to the automatic, unconscious reactions we have acquired over time to manage our fears. Just reading such a seemingly simple fact is comforting. It says to me that as human beings we share many of the same fears even though our reaction to them can be very different. Therefore, maybe I can look forward to the day when I can tell my story without fear of being judged or rejected.
For example, I had an immediate response to Lipman’s suggestion that people choose certain physical tensions to have a personal effect on others (p. 159). When he stated that some of us avoid censure by sounding inoffensive, it startled me. I recognized that trait in myself. I also recognized my tendency to breathe shallowly and to posture myself to hide when I’m not feeling confident. A friend once told me that my demeanor when conflicted sometimes looked like I was flinching as if to avoid a blow. What I had not realized is the circular relationship of these emotional and physical reactions. It is not hard to understand that emotional reactions can cause physical tension; but now it seems that long-term physical response can perpetuate the emotional reaction. While I agree that when a behavior is so ingrained that it is difficult to recognize, changing the physical tension must be just as difficult, if not more. So, I’m looking forward to practicing the exercises in the book and hoping to overcome the fear that is holding me back.
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