By using this site, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Accept
Health Works CollectiveHealth Works CollectiveHealth Works Collective
  • Health
    • Mental Health
  • Policy and Law
    • Global Healthcare
    • Medical Ethics
  • Medical Innovations
  • News
  • Wellness
  • Tech
Search
© 2023 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Reading: Meanness And The Power Of Stories
Share
Notification Show More
Font ResizerAa
Health Works CollectiveHealth Works Collective
Font ResizerAa
Search
Follow US
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
© 2023 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Health Works Collective > Wellness > Meanness And The Power Of Stories
Wellness

Meanness And The Power Of Stories

hsphealth
hsphealth
Share
6 Min Read
How Meanness Got Started - HSP Health Blog
SHARE

 

Contents
  • The Power Of Stories
  • How Meanness Got The Upper Hand
  • The Dark Side Of Stories
  • Using Stories Wisely

How Meanness Got Started - HSP Health Blog

Do you ever wonder why there is so much meanness in the world?

Do you ever feel that it makes no sense, that it is a mistake?

More Read

The Most Addictive Drugs Available With a Prescription
Benefits and Guidance on Using Peptides for Bodybuilding
Are Melodic Intonation Therapy and Rhythmic Mechanisms Enough to Legitimize Music Therapy?
Can America’s Youth be a Focal Point for Bending Healthcare’s Cost Curve?
Telemedicine Saves Travel and Time for Patients with Parkinson Disease

If you do, you are right.

 

How Meanness Got Started - HSP Health Blog

Do you ever wonder why there is so much meanness in the world?

Do you ever feel that it makes no sense, that it is a mistake?

If you do, you are right.

The Power Of Stories

Meanness is as old as the human race and it exists in other species as well. However, the human race has carried its meanness to an extreme.

To understand the evolution of meanness it helps to put yourself in the shoes of our early ancestors. Imagine what life was like several thousand years ago. You live in a small tribe of people probably in Africa, Australia or South America. You live in mud huts and have little to protect you from harsh weather conditions, and the aggression of other tribes.

But that is only the half of it. People do not know why anything happens. They do not know enough about cause and effect. They often felt at the mercy of nature and forces beyond their control.

So what did they do?

They did what people do – even today. They started creating stories about what was happening in order to create a rationale a way of handling the events that occurred around them and to them. They dealt with uncertainty and tragedy by creating explanations:

  • they created gods and goddesses and also sorts of myths to explain human behavior
  • they became very attuned to nature and created many supernatural explanations for the behavior of nature.
  • they were very attuned to the energy of the universe

A perfect example is Dreamtime and dreaming created by the Australian aborigines. Dreamtime is the aboriginal creation story and the starting point and basis of aboriginal culture. Dreaming is used to explain everything from how a bird got its colors to how humans are created. Aborigines used Dreamtime to explain spiritual concepts like eternity and earth concepts like weather events.

The point of this is not to describe aborigines as mean people far from it. It’s to help understand something about stories.

How Meanness Got The Upper Hand

It isn’t really meanness that got the upper hand. Stories did.

To this day we attach to stories about ourselves and others, our country and other countries for better or worse.

Stories are powerful.

At one time, stories were all that we had to communicate cultural identity and life. They were our first form of education and are a wonderful way to talk about the mysteries of life. Stories bring our experience to life and help us connect with the web of life that constitutes our world. Certainly the aborigines used their stories that way.

The Dark Side Of Stories

However, stories can have a dark side. Because of the way we engage with stories they can take on a life of their own.

Look at what happens when a story is created and used to bully someone. Some people commit suicide because the story being told about them becomes entrenched and they cannot do anything to correct it. Stories used in such a malicious way can destroy lives.

Stories are often wrong although that may be hard for us to understand when we are in the middle of one. One of the reasons stories are so powerful is because they engage with our imaginations. Our imagination can be a very open place, susceptible to stories that play on our fears. Stories that play on our fears or negative experiences, our wounded self, can easily be malicious and escape the serious scrutiny that they deserve.

Stories form our connection with others and our identities. What happens when we have a story that is totally different from everyone else in our social group? It may be interesting but it will also feel uncomfortable. Then again how many of us allow our stories to be the cultural story we are told when we are young? How much of the differences between men and women are about the long cultural story of each sex and not about the actual people in a relationship?

Using Stories Wisely

It is important to be very mindful about the stories we tell as well as the stories we believe. It will help us to support stories for their positive social and cultural contribution and help us avoid promoting malicious stories that feed the meanness between people.

 

Related articles
  • The Value Of Evolutional Thinking For HSP’s
  • Why We Need Highly Sensitive People Now
  • Have You Tried Ecstatic Dance?
Enhanced by Zemanta

Technorati Tags: meanness, stories

FacebookGoogle+LinkedInPinterestShare/Bookmark

The post Meanness And The Power Of Stories appeared first on HSP Health Blog.


TAGGED:meanness
Share This Article
Facebook Copy Link Print
Share

Stay Connected

1.5kFollowersLike
4.5kFollowersFollow
2.8kFollowersPin
136kSubscribersSubscribe

Latest News

a woman walking on the hallway
6 Easy Healthcare Ways to Sit Less and Move More Every Day
Health
September 9, 2025
Clinical Expertise
Healthcare at a Crossroads: Why Leadership Matters More Than Ever
Global Healthcare
September 9, 2025
travel nurse in north carolina
Balancing Speed and Scope: Choosing the Nursing Degree That Fits Your Goals
Nursing
September 1, 2025
intimacy
How to Keep Intimacy Comfortable as You Age
Relationship and Lifestyle Senior Care
September 1, 2025

You Might also Like

The Most Effective Ways to Manage and Prevent UTIs in the Elderly

August 29, 2013
Home HealthWellness

10 Tips For A Healthy, Eco-Friendly Back To School Season

April 30, 2019
Strategies for Managing Grief and Promoting Emotional Wellness After Losing a Loved One
Wellness

Strategies for Managing Grief and Promoting Emotional Wellness After Losing a Loved One

April 8, 2024
991908 10151624563868518 1886738826 o Biking In Spain With Diabetes
Wellness

Biking In Spain With Diabetes

June 20, 2013
Subscribe
Subscribe to our newsletter to get our newest articles instantly!
Follow US
© 2008-2025 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Username or Email Address
Password

Lost your password?