The Power of Stories: Interview with Heather Sundahl

“I will tell you something about stories…they aren’t just for entertainment. Don’t be fooled. They are all we have, you see, all we have to fight off illness or death. You don’t have anything if you don’t have stories.”–Leslie Marmon Silko

All our lives we are surrounded by stories: nursery rhymes and fairy tales, scripture and literature, gossip and family history. How do these stories shape and define us? Can changing a story change a life? I believe that it can. Think about what stories you most often tell about yourself, your family, your faith. What do those stories reveal? What messages are sent? Are there aspects of those stories that don’t work for you anymore? I believe as we seek out divinity–and the divine in ourselves–we will find the power to rethink and reclaim our stories. It is how we interpret the events of our lives, and not the events themselves, that determine our happiness.

In June, I was interviewed by Kyrie Papenfuss about my decades long research on the power of stories. In her , Kyrie addresses a wide range of topics in her interviews: being Asian-American, Healthy Sexuality, Understanding OCD, being Miss Utah, and more. Kyrie describes her podcast as “a discussion on secular topics through a gospel lens. In 3 Nephi 16:3, Christ says, ‘they shall hear my voice and shall be numbered among my sheep, that there may be one fold and one shepherd.’ Our podcast’s goal is to increase unity and understanding as we strive to be ‘One Fold.'”

If you want to explore how the way we frame out stories shapes our lives, give it a listen!