I enjoyed "A Million Miles in a Thousand Years" by Donald Miller. It is non-fiction commentary on the author's life, thoughts and adventures, especially after being asked to allow some documentary film makers to make a film about his life. Evidently, he hadn't thought much about what exactly a story is until he began to work with them. Much of the book is about Miller's interest in thinking about the elements of a story and learning from others about constructing good ones.
When we just allow our minds to think more or less as they will, we often have a narrative running in them about our lives. It may not be organized in much of a story format but sometimes therapists or coaches or teachers urge those they are helping to "drop their story." They mean to try stopping the re-running of the same beefs, fears, grievances that tend to get run over and over. Nearly 30 years ago, the book "I'm OK, You're OK" described the repetitious replays as recording tapes that are loops ready to play over and over in our mind.
One of the advantages of meditation is that practicing keeping the mind empty for 10 minutes increases one's awareness of what thoughts are running through the mind. The practice increases one's ability to simply look or simply hear or simply be in inner silence. Enjoying the taste of such stillness increases one's awareness of just what thoughts are popping up. One learns to shelve whatever is not of interest, telling the issue that it will be given time later. When later comes, We can ask what exactly the subject is, whether it truly and honestly is a problem, and if so, what can be done, internally or externally about it.
I have heard that the essence of a story is a conflict or challenge. "Girl meets boy, girl loses boy, girl gets boy" is a short form of many stories. Even though my child brain thinks that life would actually be better without that middle loss, I guess it is true that stories we pay attention to, read or watch films or tv about, need that tension or challenge to arouse our interest.
Whether a story is a memory, a hope or a movie, the narratives get constructed, have only temporary lives and can be turned off or re-written.
