Storytelling
In our childhood days, we used to be given a drawing and then we had to frame a story around it. I still remember, in one of the exams we were given a picture of a bus and few passengers in it. We were asked to write 150 words on it.
After fifteen minutes of scratching my head, the sentence I wrote: “There is a bus going from Kolkata to Darjeeling with 10 passengers sitting in it. One person is looking through the window and others are sleeping”.
I could not frame any more sentences from it. And I got only one mark out of five. I never got what was the importance of this activity. But now after entering job life and spending around ten years I understand what the importance of storytelling is. Its not only importance it’s a necessity.
I believe that each and everything in life has a reason behind it. May it be why do we sleep at night, or it may even be why do you love someone. There is always a science behind it. Many people believe the concept of holy water. I am a firm believer of that, but yes that too has a science behind it. I will not deep dive into those reasons in this blog , but that’s an interesting field to explore. Many things in the world are not explored, hence we don’t know the reason, but surely nothing can exist without a reason. So now I started researching around storytelling. Why people love stories and not straight facts. Let’s take a simple example:
“There is a restaurant which makes tasty food and hence people have affinity towards it.”
“There is a beautiful three-story restaurant with a nice alfresco. The juicy and the tender meat is always appreciated by the nonveg lovers. At the same time the wood fired pizza with bright red paprika enhances the smoky flavor.
The Millennials who are always attracted to fast food would find this place best because of the ambience which add to the attractions.”
If I read these 2 sentences, both gives the same information. But in the second statement it gives the description of the menus as well as what type of customer gets attracted and why. These words have a great impact on the brain and helps you to remember things easily.
Let’s take one more example:
“I will go to a beach in Goa where I will have a lot of sea food.”
Lets see the image below :
Again, both says the same information but again the picture feels you better as it is easy to memorize. This makes a long-term impact on your brain.
Now if I deep dive into the science behind it :
Listening to a story that’s being told or read to you activates the auditory cortex of your brain. Engaging with a story also fires up your left temporal cortex, the region that is receptive to language. This part of your brain is also capable of filtering out “noise”; that is, overused words or clichés. That is why the most skilled storytellers are careful about the language they use, employing a host of literary techniques to keep your brain engaged.
Hope this helps you to understand the importance of story telling. We may excel in our own field. But we are not known by things we know, but by things we do and express. If we are not able to express things which make a long term on someone's brain, we will not be heard. In professional life this is one of the most important skill each one should have. I will deep dive into the art of storytelling in future blogs .
Reference:
https://talesfortadpoles.ie/blogs/news/the-power-of-storytelling-and-how-it-affects-your-brain
