"SaY" it with a Story: Listen to a Life Story

Listen to a Life Story Contest – young people 8-18 years interview a grandparent or grand friend to submit a 300-word story or a 5-10 minute recording.

The Listen to a Life Story empowers people of all ages to connect the dots and create a bigger story of change for your own wellbeing, as well as the wellbeing of our communities and the planet.

Life Story is the lasting impact of your life. Interviewing a Grand-parent/friend helps you explore their life (or the life of someone you care about) in a deeper way – because every life is connected to everything that is, that has come before, and that comes after.

What if your life story could change the world?

In fact it does, in little ways every single day. The Listen to a Life Story process helps you be more aware of the meaning and impact of the life of your loved one.

A Listen to a Life Story is a personal journey of self-discovery. It can also be a special gift you share with family and friends. It can be a meaningful exercise to celebrate the birth of a child or grandchild, or to honor the death of a parent or grandparent. It can be a blueprint for living and an intentional way to lay out your meaningful impact in the world.

In addition to being a personal life review/focusing process, Listen to a Life Story is an opportunity to reflect on and honour someone's memory. It's a way to work through your feelings. It's a way to say goodbye – and make sure that the person, and what they've left behind, isn't forgotten. In many cultures, as long as a person's memory remains alive, they are still with you.

The real measure of our lives is in what we learn from our life experiences, the ideas we bring into the world, the values we live by, and our hopes for the future. Life stories, memorials, biographies, and even mission statements are often a recitation of facts, events, and goals without the personal meaning behind them. A Listen to a Life Story is the "why" behind the "what" in a person's life. There is no one "right" way to create your legacy. You can follow our template which guides you through a process of three steps:

1) Connect. A process of life review/refocusing reconnects you with your experiences and your values, and takes you through your childhood, adolescence, and adulthood to pick out those key moments that reveal the most about you. As you use the triggers we suggest, you'll bring back many memories and think about many things. Allow yourself to reflect and connect with them; focus on how they make you feel. You'll see that certain moments start to resonate as most important to your life and who you are. You can also connect your life story to the bigger story of life writ large. 2) Create. As you put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard, you want to describe the most significant moments from your life. The goal is to tell a story – not just recite facts. Stories are what bring a life alive on a page, and connect most deeply with others. After you write your first draft, put it aside for a few days. Then review and revise until you feel the truth of what you've written. 3) Change. Whatever you create has the power to change your own life by refocusing or redirecting you. It can also change the lives of others, as either a window or a mirror. A mirror helps people see themselves; a window gives them a glimpse into something they may not have understood or felt before.

Please email us your recordings/interviews to spinayarnindia@gmail.com

Your Voice. Their Imagination.