She asked her mother, “Mum, mum, mum, what is real, real, real?”
“What do you mean, what is real, real, real?” “I mean without this echo, echo, echo.” “Which echo, echo, echo?
Right here and now is real, real, real.” “I see, see, see.”
And then she understood, understood, understood.
The story “The Cave Dwellers” demonstrates that what we perceive is determined more by our biology and biography than by objective facts, and that the feedback effects from both our sensory perceptions and our interpretations largely drown out what is allegedly real about the world.
Mohammed created a world. Freud created a world. Tolkien created a world. McKinsey created a world. The Aldi brothers created a world. Bill Gates created a world. Can I too create a world?
The German company Tchibo uses the advertising slogan, “Every week a new world”. New worlds are indeed created every week. Most of them are not very original; they swim in the wake of the established worlds and do not gain any traction.
What kind of a world have you created? A philosophical world? A spiritual world? A commercial world? A mathematical world? A social world? An aesthetic world? A material world? A communicative world? A world of fun? An ethical world?
You might be thinking to yourself, “But I haven’t created any world at all!” I don’t believe that for a second. As soon as you look at something – anything – and inadvertently think something new, you start to create a world.
“The Creation of the World” makes it clear that all thought systems – and therefore all human ways of interpreting the world – have been devised by humans. We often get the world we think up and believe in; at a personal level, this means that we become what we believe in and what we think, hope and fear.
This rule has far-reaching implications in terms of both our health and our psychological, material, financial and social conditions. We can of course share our individual worlds with others by communicating them verbally and non-verbally, and to a certain extent turn our environment into what we believe it to be. All reality is created on the basis of a communicated and therefore shared world.
I am happy to present another story in Romanian, taken from the Romanian translation of my “Handbook of Therapeutic Storytelling”
Povestea „Norocul lui Gogu“ ne reamintește faptul că nu întotdeauna suntem capabili să recunoaștem și să acceptăm fericirea, că unii oameni au motivele speciale ca să nu își îmbunătățească situația, că avem nevoie de țeluri pentru care să luptăm și că succesul neașteptat poate fi, la rândul său, copleșitor.
Cineva mi‑a povestit: „Când eram copil, aveam găini și un cocoș căruia îi spuneam Gogu. Cocoșul și găinile alergau în jurul curții, scormonind și ciugulind boabe. Odată am vrut să‑i facem lui Gogu o bucurie aparte. L‑am pus în mijlocul cutiei cu boabe. Acest lucru ar fi trebuit să însemne raiul pentru orice pasăre! Gogu ședea acum pe mii de boabe delicioase. Ne‑a privit uimit și nu a schițat niciun gest. Nu a mâncat nici măcar un bob. În cele din urmă, l‑am scos din nou afară, unde, la fel ca mai înainte, a început să scormonească din nou după boabe“.
When I visited the Pisa Baptistry close to the city’s cathedral, I thought to myself, ‘They’ve turned it into a temple to commerce!’ It raised my hackles to pay to enter a church and then find myself surrounded by hundreds of frantic tourists rushing around and taking photographs of everything. Many kept checking their watches, because a singer was paid to perform every hour in order to demonstrate the building’s wonderful acoustics. Should a church not be a place of prayer and devotion? After climbing up to the gallery, I thought, ‘Surely no one will object if I turn this temple to Mammon back into a house of God.’ It took me a while to screw up the courage, but finally I sang the opening line of a psalm loudly and clearly into the open space, ‘Laudate omnes gentes, laudate dominum.’ The acoustics really were superb.
Everything went quiet in the church, and although everyone looked around to find out who was singing, the echoes made it difficult for them to locate me. The security staff searching frantically for the perpetrator also found had a hard task on their hands, but by the end of the verse one had spotted me. He waited for me to start singing again in order to catch me red-handed, since it would otherwise have been easy for me to deny my act of sacrilege. I looked around the building in a daze. “Thank you,” said a woman standing next to me. “That was wonderful.” I too felt better after having sung the psalm. When the last echo had faded away, I left the house of God, giving a sly grin to the security guard who was still watching me.
The story “Sacrilege” illustrates that standing up for your values represents a value in itself. In cases where these values are opposed to the interests of others, it is often necessary to find a balance between defending your ideals in public and taking a less conspicuous approach. The story can also be used to encourage clients not to hide their light under a bushel and to present a self-confident image during interactions with others.
A number of researchers wanted to find out why salmon die after spawning, so they fished a number of specimens out of the river, fitted them with radio transmitters and placed them back into the sea. And what do you think happened? The animals stayed alive.
The story “Renewed Life” makes it clear that life plans and goals play a vital role in an individual’s happiness, health and life expectancy.
Someone once told me, “When I was growing up my family kept hens and a cockerel named Gockle. The cockerel and the hens ran around in the yard together, scratching and pecking at grains. Once we decided to give Gockle a special treat, and so we picked him up and put him down right in the middle of the box where the grain was stored. That must have been heaven on earth to a chicken! Yet even though Gockle was now standing on thousands upon thousands of tasty grains, he simply looked at us with a surprised expression and did nothing. He did not eat a single grain. Finally we took him outside again, where he scratched and searched for grains like he had before.”
The story “Gockle’s Good Luck” reminds us that we cannot always recognise and accept happiness and that some people have reasons of their own for not improving their situation. It also reminds us that we need goals for which we fight and that unexpected success may overtax our capacities. In conversation with parents, for example, the story can be used to make it clear that children and teenagers should not be allowed to become accustomed to taking an affluent lifestyle for granted, and that they need to experience achieving success and possessions through their own efforts. The story can also be used to alert listeners to the fact that they are taking skills for granted and overlooking opportunities for action, even though – or perhaps because – they are present in abundance.
Traducere din limba germană de: Diana Rotaru/ Translation from German by: Diana Rotaru
Povestea „A doua viață“ demonstrează faptul că fericirea, sănătatea și speranța de viață depind de măsura în care o persoană își poate defini un plan de viață și niște finalități.
The story “Second Life” demonstrates that happiness, health and life expectancy depends on the extent to which a person can define his or her a life plan and goals.
A doua viață
Câțiva cercetători au dorit să știe de ce mor somonii după reproducere. Au pescuit câteva vietăți din râu, le‑au atașat un transmițător și le‑au dat drumul înapoi în mare. Și ce credeți: peștii au trăit mai departe.
Some researchers wanted to know why salmon die after reproduction. They fished a few fish out of the river, attached a transmitter and released them back into the sea. And what do you think: The fish lived on.
Now available: Romanian translation of my book “Handbook of Therapeutic Storytelling”
“My aim in life is to leave as much healing and joy in my wake as possible,” I said to a friend. “That’s a lofty goal,” he said. “I’m happy if I can avoid causing too much harm.”
The story “My Aim in Life” calls into question the absoluteness of existing life goals, and encourages the listener to formulate his or her own values.The story “Renewed Life” makes it clear that life plans and goals play a vital role in an individual’s happiness, health and life expectancy.
For all my friends, Karine would like to offer you a discount of 15% of all her coaching packages. Are you willing to have a deeper look at her website and book a ‘discovery session’ with her?
Translation from German by: Diana Rotaru / Traducere din limba germană de: Diana Rotaru
Găsirea sensului
Povestea „Scopul vieții“ pune sub semnul întrebării ideea că ar exista niște finalități obligatorii pentru viețile tuturor și încurajează clientul să-și expliciteze propriile valori.
engl.: The story “Purpose of Life” questions the idea that there is some binding purpose to everyone’s life and encourages the client to make their own values explicit.
Scopul vieții / The story “Purpose of Life”
— Scopul meu în viață este să las în urma mea cât mai multă alinare și fericire, i‑am spus unui prieten. — Ai mari pretenții, a spus el. Eu sunt bucuros când reușesc să nu provoc prea multă nefericire.
Diese Webseite verwendet Cookies. Durch die weitere Nutzung der Webseite stimmen Sie der Verwendung von Cookies zu. OK
Privacy & Cookies Policy
Privacy Overview
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
