Acting Out: Challenging the Collective Narrative

Cathy Presland
4 min readJun 13, 2021

Or at least becoming more sensitive to seeing them!

Thank you to coyot on Pixabay for the scary cat image

Seeing the Personal Narrative

I spend some of my time with clients, usually at the beginning of our time together, helping them see the difference between what is out in the world, and the thought-created ‘illusion’ they experience as real.

We’re aiming to develop the facility to take a moment, pause before rushing to make sense of things, and sit with the ambiguity a little longer. I want them to widen the scope of the actions they think they can take, and make considered, hopefully wiser, choices before rushing in.

But Then This!

I was with a client last week, talking about a colleague she had been experiencing as ‘difficult’, and considering how much more constructive and rewarding it would be to set that personal history aside and show up fresh with the person in front of her, in a single meeting or exchange, without bringing the history, the story she was carrying around about them.

Oh I couldn’t do THAT!

She exclaimed.

It would go against the corporate narrative.

We both laughed of course, because the fact that she had already seen it as a narrative meant she had enough…

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Cathy Presland

What if making an impact was part of your everyday? Stories to light up your soul. Read more and free courses: https://cathypresland.com/