The Importance of Story Making

This week was a relaxing aerial yoga class as many of the poses we did weren’t super demanding or difficult. We hung out in the silk a lot and I’m all about that. As I continue my occupation I can feel my body getting used to the silks in that a lot of the poses that were once rather uncomfortable have become less painful and more relaxing (which she said was going to happen!) She also purchased some yummy essential oil sprays that she spritzed on us when were in “the fig.” (Still one of my favorite poses.) I am really becoming a fan of essential oils lately (since Liz H’s yoga class- thanks Liz!) and I can’t seem to get enough, so when she sprayed us with those I was in my happy place!

Clark, Ennevor, and Richardson (1996) described how important stories are because they truly define who we are. Every decision we make leads to an event that we may consider to be small in terms of the bigger picture or impact our lives in a tremendous and significant way. These experiences help shape our beliefs, views, thoughts, actions, and choices and truly create who we are as a whole. Right now aerial yoga is just one small aspect of my life. It provides me with a means of relaxation, exercise, and gives me something to look forward to each week. In the grand scheme of things, it’s not something that I feel is a significant part of my story or really defines who I am but it’s certainly something that I feel I can relate to and enjoy and that’s really important to me. If this is something I continue to do and make progress with, I can definitely see it becoming a larger part of my story- but for now it remains pretty small.

Although there were a number of occupational science concepts that were discussed in this video, the one that really stuck out to me was content reframing. This involves changing the meaning of the situation itself, which ultimately leads to changes in expectations, the possibilities that we see for ourselves, and the choices we feel we have (King et al., 2003). I think a lot of people would take the diagnosis of ALS and have a hard time looking it from a “glass half full” perspective. Although, Morrie openly discussed the negative feelings he had associated with the disease, he truly kept a positive mentality throughout the entire interview process. One thing that was discussed was the fact that soon, Morrie wouldn’t have the use of his mouth anymore making the articulation of words impossible. This is a very scary thought to most and Morrie wasn’t an exception as he feared for this day. What sets Morrie apart though, is that he felt this would allow him to just listen and he didn’t see that as a bad thing. He thought of ways he could still communicate, which is through the answering of yes or no questions, and he felt his facial expressions spoke for themselves. I think this is a great example of content reframing as Morrie didn’t see it as “now I can’t talk anymore” but rather “I can still listen, and that’s what’s important.”

*another example of content reframing from Morrie :)