Our lives are filled with the stories we tell ourselves to make sense of our lives - but our stories might actually be creating our experiences. You can shape your experiences by managing the stories you tell yourself. The biggest takeaways from this episode: Why we tell ourselves stories. How to know if you're telling yourself a story. The 2 ways that our stories can undermine us. How to use stories for your benefit.   Hey there, Welcome to the Style With Intention podcast. I'm so glad you're here! Today's episode was inspired by a real-life experience I had with a friend last week. Sometimes, it takes another person's perspective to show you something about yourself - which is what this episode is all about...seeing ourselves more clearly. Listen in today to learn about the stories we tell ourselves. Everyone does this! It's how we make sense of the world - but is can become a problem if we never stop and challenge our assumptions. As always, my goal is to use what I'm learning to help you. I wrap up this episode with some thoughts on making your stories work better for you - to help you feel happier...because happy looks really, really good! Enjoy the show!         CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE   If you’d rather read, than listen, here’s the FULL TRANSCRIPT OF EPISODE #21 STORIES THAT MIGHT BE HOLDING YOU BACK Welcome to the Style With Intention podcast, where we talk about how to use your personal style choices as a tool to create a life you love. We believe choice is empowering, complacency is boring, and happy looks really, really good! I’m your host, Annie Kip, and  today we’re talking about stories. Not the stories you find in books and magazines or on Netflix. I do love a good story but today, we’re actually talking about the stories that we tell ourselves. These are the stories we make up - to help us make sense of our lives. You know you’re telling yourself a story when you’ve interpreted something that happened (like when you decide what someone else’s motives were) and when you’ve given something meaning, or sort of mentally declared an absolute (like “I always get sick” or “people are selfish”). I do this, you do this, we all do this. Our stories are a way for us to make sense of what goes on in our daily lives and to explain why things are the way they are. We all feel better when we understand why things happen and it makes us feel more in control when we can put our experiences into a category or give ourselves a reason for why things happen. But I believe that this is a chicken and egg sort of problem - that the stories we tell ourselves can actually be creating our conscious experiences. This was really made clear to me the other day, when I was on a walk with a friend. We had the same experience, but we came away with totally different stories about what happened. On our walk, we came upon a little boy who had set up a table in his front yard and was selling some little pieces of art that he’d made. They were these things called “God’s eyes” and I remember making them in elementary school - you wrap yarn in and around two Popsicle sticks in a cross and it makes a pretty pattern. This boy was selling them for 50 cents each and he had few set out on his table. Normally, my policy is to buy from kids who are industrious enough to set up a stand in their front yard - I want to support them so whether it’s lemonade or pet rocks or artwork or whatever - I will always buy one thing from them - but I didn’t have any money with me. My friend only had a $20 in her pocket, but she decided to give him the money in exchange for everything he had out on the table. The boy took the money, closed up his shop, and went inside. As we were walking away, she wondered aloud whether the little boy realized that she had just given him such a gift - $20 for a few God’s eyes! His re