I encourage you to spend a few minutes to Google articles about the brain science behind storytelling. Now that the MRI is everyday technology, researchers have been studying what goes on in our own thinking machines.
Terms like “mirroring,” “neural coupling” and so forth will show up as you study this for yourself.
Basically, your brain is hard-wired for stories. It’s the oldest communication tool we do as humans, right? So, over the millions of years our species has been around, we’ve processed the world through the sharing of stories. Stories of danger, mystery, awe, hunting, relationships.
And in a nutshell, that’s why you use stories – to establish common ground between you and your audiences. When you tell a well structured and compelling story, the listener’s brain is automatically seeking what is relevant – what they can relate to out of their own lives in your story.
So, when you think about what stories to tell, begin with your audience first. What are their everyday life circumstances, challenges and desires? Where do your own experiences intersect with theirs? The specific circumstances don’t have to be identical, but at the end of the day I think you’d agree that we all share much in common.
Stories establish a unique connection, a bridge between you and me. Let’s cross over that bridge through the power of storytelling!