Writers aren't the only ones who should invent stories.

Person standing in front of a blue body of water inside the cave during daytime by @wirestock

According to a psychologytoday.com article by Jordan Grumet, MD, dated May 8, 2025 and entitled “The Story You Tell Yourself: Why Storytelling Is the Hidden Bridge Between Meaning, Purpose, and Happiness,” that end result of personal joy isn’t a “destination” to be reached over time and space; it’s a “synthesis,” or intermingling, of meaning and purpose into a new and better form. Grumet’s meaning refers to all the various discernable aspects of our lives, particularly the painful ones: “the struggles, traumas, and turning points.” His purpose refers to the big picture or roadmap of life. Look at a map (or Google Map) and you’ll see all the highways, landmarks, mountain ranges, rivers, towns. Singly, they constitute but aspects of the map. Altogether, they tell us a story about the area. And every map reveals a different area such as the Rockies, the Pacific Coast, the Great Plains—and a different story. And each area—each story—is ever changing.

Grumet goes on to say, “these two don’t automatically connect. Meaning as it pertains to the spots on a map of life lives in the past. Purpose is rooted in the present and future.” To bring them together so as to give them value, we must build “a bridge.” And that bridge is storytelling, according to the author.

Meaning: We each have our own unique story to tell. How we understand all the things, good and bad, that happen to us depends on our individual interpretation. Our stories aren’t static. Time and space forbids that as well as all our worldly interactions. Neither are they repetitious (or so I hope). Things don’t (or shouldn’t) just happen to us over and over. We can learn from them and acquire the courage and resilience to grow and evolve because of them, to either keep doing them or not do them again. And as we shape and reshape how we react and respond to the world around us, our stories—or narratives—evolve as well.

In other words, we don’t keep framing events and messages the same way. As we mature, developing an ability to better comprehend those events and messages, we reframe them. And, as we reframe the things that happen to us, we reframe our stories. They evolve just as we do.

Purpose: The way our stories metamorphose influences our future decisions. It starts by creating “anchors.” Grumet says “to live a purposeful life, we need anchors—themes, values, or insights we commit ourselves to. And often, these anchors emerge from the meaning we’ve made through storytelling.”

While we are experiencing life, we need to step out of our situations during or after they happen and look at them as a scientific observer would. What could we learn about them that might guide us onto a course that has added value because of what we endured? For example, should we grieve forever a lost loved one or should we apply something we admired about them to our own lives, absorbing that essence and letting it motivate us to rise above our pain and loss? For Grumet, this event—or anchor—“transformed grief into mission.” It turned into a “purpose anchor” or “action anchor.”

Summing, our individual life experiences afford us “a unique lens” for transforming our stories and our selves. And we can use our tales to help others transform theirs as well, “reinforcing [our] own purpose.” Moreover, Grumet states that storytelling helps us turn our pain into strength and endurance. It allows us to find “themes that matter most to us—healing, connection, justice, creativity—[that] can guide our future choices.” Finally, it allows us to rise above our struggles, traumas and turning points, to find happiness.