The Stories We Tell Ourselves: Rewriting Inner Narratives with Corinna Calhoun

Quick heads up: in this episode, we talk about our guest’s involvement as a counselor for a youth mental health crisis hotline, and how she works with teenagers who are experiencing thoughts of self-harm and suicide. If this is a topic that is too uncomfortable, please consider forwarding through that portion of the episode, or skipping this episode altogether. This part of the conversation happens from 24:50–30:45 in the episode.
 
If you or someone you know is having a mental health crisis, please call or text 988 or go to https://988lifeline.org/ immediately.

Additionally, The Trevor Project is a resource for LGBTQ youth who are experiencing a mental health crisis. To reach a counselor, you can text 678-678, call 1-866-488-7386, or go to https://www.thetrevorproject.org/

In this episode, we speak with Corinna Calhoun about her extraordinary talent in helping others to rewrite their inner narrative. Corinna shares how to understand, unpack, and change that story we’re telling ourselves.

In this conversation, Corinna answers the following questions:
- What stories do we tell ourselves?
- How do you change the stories we tell ourselves?
- What is the impact of the stories we tell ourselves?
- How to help others change the stories they tell themselves?

We cover how she became inspired to rewrite her inner narrative, and from that experience, she shares the four-step approach she learned that she now uses to help others to rewrite their inner narrative. And of course, she tells us what she’s learned to be true and not true about rewriting the stories we tell ourselves.

What can stand between us and the thing we want for ourselves or how we show up for others, are what Corinna refers to as limiting thoughts and the deep groove of a storyline that we keep repeating to ourselves. And yet, we can make a different choice.

The reflection question for us is what is the story we’re telling ourselves about our own superhero power? And if we don't like that story, what are we going to do about that?

Corinna shows us how we can rewrite our storylines to have a new narrative that helps us be who we want to be and how we show up for ourselves and others.

What I loved about the episode: Corrina's story and her volunteer experience with The Trevor Project are all the receipts I need to know that she's dropping knowledge nuggets on us. I so appreciate her humility, humor, and insights, and I'm a better person for being in this conversation. 

What I learned from the episode: The very simple question of "how is that story working for you?" was a "Stop! Do not pass go!" moment for me, and I've subsequently found that question to be so illuminating and generative. Just like the saying, "you are not your thoughts," you don't have to be the story you are telling yourself. 

Music in this episode created by Ian Kastner.

“What Do You Know To Be True?” is hosted by Roger Kastner and is a production of Three Blue Pens. “What Do You Know To Be True?” is recorded on the ancestral lands of the Duwamish and Suquamish people. To discover the ancestral lands of the indigenous people whose land you may be on, go to: https://native-land.ca/