As we navigate our personal journey we contextualize narratives - stories to understand self-in-the-world - bringing meaning to who we are, what we are doing here, and who cares. These narratives, however, also define the causes we give to our experiences, and how others respond to us. Selfhood narratives inform our biology how to respond to the reality we orchestrate, consequently affecting our health and longevity.
But how do these selfhood narratives influence our wellbeing? By triggering stress hormones and pro-inflammatory molecules when our interpretations enact helplessness, or immune-enhancing neuropeptides and anti-inflammatory molecules when we embrace a path of empowerment. Narratives with vulgar eyes vs with existential elegance. We can choose because we have agency, and the capacity to give attribution to our experiences.
We are the directors of our theater of change, determining scripts, characters, and plots for plays from Dante's Inferno or from our invincible Self willing to love as if we were immortal. The leap of faith must be taken based on inspiring evidence from our past, and action in our present, without evidence from our future.
Such is the way of the Drift...
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