We’ve talked about how your health story is the ongoing narrative you carry — shaped by experiences, symptoms, diagnoses, and the voices of others. And in our last post, we explored how these stories can be incredibly helpful. They can guide you toward treatment, help you explain your experience to loved ones, and give meaning to what you’ve gone through.
But here’s the tricky part: the same story that once helped you can, over time, harm you.
The Shift You Don’t See Coming
It usually happens slowly.
A helpful story starts as something that explains your symptoms and gives you a sense of control. But over the months or years, it can quietly shift into something else — a limiter, a justification, or a hidden ceiling on what you believe is possible.
- You used to say: “I can’t run because my knee injury hasn’t fully healed yet.”
- Now it’s become: “I’m not a runner. I can’t do that. That’s not me anymore.”
The first statement leaves the door open for change. The second quietly shuts and locks it.
Why Stories Can Turn Sour
Your brain loves patterns. It wants to predict what will happen next so it can keep you safe. When you repeat a story to yourself, your mind takes it as a fact — something to plan around, not question.
This is a wonderful survival mechanism… until it isn’t. It’s like driving home from work on the same route every day for five years. You go on autopilot, creating danger if you stop paying attention.
If your story keeps you from exploring new options, trying something again, or re-imagining what healing could look like, it stops serving you and starts trapping you.
The Subtle Signs Your Health Story Has Turned on You
If you’ve been living with health challenges for a while, you might not notice when your story crosses the line from supportive to self-limiting. Here are a few subtle clues:
- You use your health condition to explain more and more areas of your life that feel stuck.
- You’ve stopped even considering certain activities, relationships, or goals because “that’s just not realistic for me.”
- You feel a sense of resignation — as if this is simply “your lot” in life.
- You notice you talk about your condition more than you talk about what you’re doing to feel better.
- You spend more time on the internet researching your condition instead of living your life.
If you nodded along to more than one of these, it might be time for a rewrite.
How to Begin Rewriting a Limiting Story
You don’t have to bulldoze your current narrative or deny what’s true for you. This is about gently loosening the grip of a story that’s no longer helping you heal.
- Notice the language–listen to the way you describe yourself to others. Do your sentences end possibilities before they start?
- Separate fact from interpretation–“My doctor said I have X” differs from “I can never Y.”
- Play with “what if”–even if it feels silly, imagine how your life would look if this limitation weren’t there. What would you try? What would you reclaim?
- Gather counter-evidence–look for even minor examples of you doing more than your story claims is possible.
Why This Matters for Healing
When you loosen a limiting story, you open space for your brain and body to explore new patterns. You may find new energy for treatments, lifestyle changes, or therapies that once felt irrelevant. And sometimes, the simple act of re-imagining what’s possible changes your physiology — because you’re no longer bracing for a future you’ve already decided is hopeless.
Your story is powerful. If it’s helping you, keep it. If it’s hurting you, rewrite it. You are not locked inside it — you are the author.
Ready to Go Deeper?
If this resonates with you, I invite you to join me for my upcoming workshop:
“Letting Go of the Story: Healing Beyond Diagnosis.”
We’ll go step-by-step through the process of uncovering and gently releasing the narratives that keep us stuck—and reconnecting with the parts of ourselves we’ve pushed aside.
Because the truth is, you are more than your diagnosis.
More than your past.
And more than the story you’ve been told.
Healing begins when you believe that.
👉 [Sign up here to be the first to know when registration opens.]
Leave a Reply