Your health story is really just a way of telling your family history — where you came from, what your body has been through, what it carries. But I think about it more like a personal testimonial, or even a faith narrative. Something meant to be positive and inspirational, especially to yourself. We know that framing things positively has a real positive impact, and telling your health story is one of the most direct ways to do that kind of reframing.
Most people get this wrong by focusing almost entirely on being sick and ill. That becomes the whole story — the diagnosis, the symptoms, the limitation. But think about people who have been through chronic pain, and then what it actually took to become pain free. That arc is the story worth telling. Storytelling belongs in healthcare precisely because the way you narrate your own body shapes how you inhabit it.
If you learn to tell your health story well, the symptoms don’t immediately change — that’s not the point. You’d just feel better. There’s something about having a coherent, forward-moving narrative about your own health that shifts how you carry yourself through the day. It’s an art form, really, and learning from people who do it well is worth the time.
The connection to the poem came from somewhere I can’t fully explain. But the idea of being loved more than feared feels like it has something to do with how we relate to our own bodies — whether we approach them with fear or with something closer to care. That instinct is worth sitting with.