“Telling stories is as basic to human beings as eating and drinking; more so, in fact, while food makes us live, stories make our lives more worth living”. Richard Kearney
Stories are an integral part of our lives and it has no age limit; as children we heard stories from our parents, grandparents, teachers which were like fairy tales, morale boosting stories. And in our adult hood as per the stage in lifecycle our interest for themes of stories kept changing. Stories form an essential part of our lives, we need them regularly. One of the most consequential and enjoyable aspects of our lives is that we spent time listening to with stories, primarily in novel form, reading about events and people who interest us.
Why do we watch movies? We watch movies and television serials to watch stories. They are so necessary because they serve so many critical functions that enable us to survive and thrive as humans, all at once. Through stories, we share passions, fears, sadness, hardships, and joys, and we find common ground with characters woven in them. We connect with those characters/protagonists in stories mentally and sometimes in real life stories we communicate, get friendly with the characters that are like us.
Stories are universal, conveying meaning and purpose that help us understand ourselves better and find commonality with others. There is a scientific explanation for our love of stories: when we hear a story that resonates with us, our levels of a hormone called oxytocin increase and this hormone is a “feel good” hormone.
We must listen to stories especially during bedtime to escape the humdrum, routine and boring nature of life. The routine nature bores us we all look up for some significant events in life. A story disintegrates the everyday events, releasing out the boring bits. Through story, we can imagine being somebody else or going in a different world of fantasies, without taking on the risks or expense ourselves. We can even do the impossible, like travel through time or explore the universe.
And believe me; this escape factor makes stories highly entertaining. They pass the time. They are fun. The fun factor enables stories to fulfil their other functions. One of the most basic functions of the story is to teach. We use stories also to quickly and easily learn facts. As a Professor, I always give business examples to my students of MBA in form of stories and it works wonders. Research shows that we retain facts more readily if they are related in narrative form. Stories teach us how to be, what to be, where to be.
Human culture has evolved and bosomed via storytelling. Through stories, we communicate to our children and others how to behave, how to take decisions, values of life etc. Stories preserve our own history and culture, passing it along in a form that is easy to remember to the next generation. We use stories not only to learn but also to speculate, to pose questions and then find solutions.
Story tellers have stretched our imaginations beyond mind’s eye, we have made contact with aliens, we have gone into different space, and we have disappeared through time machine and what not. Stories help us explore all the possibilities. Stories help us understand hypothetical situation as well. When we tell stories about ourselves, we are imagining all our possible futures and, we hope, helping ourselves choose the best ones.
Beyond just speculation about what might happen, we use stories to answer the great unanswerable questions. Why am I here? What is the purpose of my life? What does it mean to be human? Stories bring order and meaning to the chaos and unpredictability of life. A story always has a beginning, middle and end, which is very satisfying to us, since we don’t know how our own personal story will end. And our lives are really a search for our own story.
Psychologists say that bedtime stories work wonders for adults too as they create a new sleep onset association. Many people listen to audio books. It is really helpful, as you don’t realise when you go off to sleep. But make sure to set a timer so it doesn’t keep playing all night. The hormones oxytocin and serotonin secrete well while listening to stories because of mood stimulation. And, if you are good story teller you can help the seniors in house to fall asleep easily by telling them good bedtime stories.
A good night’s sleep is essential for our well being and our health, but in our busy lives sleep is often poor and overlooked. Now is the time to stop a while and find comfort and wonder in other worlds where all is well and sleep just a stance/a page/ a pause away.
