So Much More Than "Just" A Story!
Yes, there are narrative elements to our sense of self, but in a real dimension of reality. Narrativity is simply part of the nature of what being a person is, and saying just a story is used as a means of belittling, trivializing it, and of course having a negative attitude towards it, more accurately this language is used to de-realize it. Taking on this reductionist connotation to "story," and applying it to the entirety of what oneself and others are, is a powerful way to shift your perception and experience, to suddenly experience ontological dis-reality in a radically jarring way that can have lasting consequences, some positive and others extremely negative. A key to my own unbecoming of “just a story” has been understanding the nature of what is meant by "story," and its synonyms (narrative, language, ideas, concepts, constructs, etc.) in a new way, in which I no longer view any of these as ontologically “false” constructs, but real ones that exist on the