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Life is not only composed of what happens to us, but is also made up of the stories we tell ourselves about our experiences. Some narratives extract meaning and purpose from life’s most challenging situations, while others lead us to ruminate on the unfortunate, unfair, or unpredictable aspects of life’s events.

By changing our inner narrative to a more balanced, realistic, and empowered point of view, we can become mentally and emotionally resilient. Cognitive behavioral therapy and narrative therapy are approaches that embrace this process of examining the stories we tell ourselves with the goal of restructuring the narrative into a story that supports our growth and well-being.

Telling ourselves an overly negative story often fuels anxiety and depression; however our inner story does not need to go from entirely negative to entirely positive, nor pessimistic to optimistic. In narrative therapy the aim is to avoid being “single-storied,” and instead embrace the richness and complexity of life, leaving room for a wide range of emotions, meanings, and interpretations of our experiences.

Reading books, like Charlotte Agell’s Just for Today, can help children, and their grown-ups, to consider healthier narratives. More than anything, reading books can remind us that our story doesn’t end here—the blank pages ahead offer hope of a satisfying plot twist, an important revelation, and ultimately a happy ending.

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