Why sharing of stories of personal experiences is an important tool for learning?

I run a platform called Mums and Stories in India and I have been seeing since the last one year on the number of stories of real life experiencesthat have been shared on our platform. It makes a visible difference to the lives of those who read it and are perhaps going through a similar dilemma.

I reach out to mums particularly urban mums through stories and events and more than anyone else it is me who is learning that sharing helps oneself and others.

A few stories that have been published have beentouched by cruel fate like a mother speaking of taking care of her paralyzed son up in the hills. If one thought travelling would be a constraint there are larger dilemmas like taking care of that 23 year old where the mother has to do everything for the son, Giving him a shower, cleaning his teeth to other personal hygiene chores. Stories like these make many others understand life is not fair. Yet it cannot be brushed aside as fate. One needs to fight it out to survive and make a difference to oneself and others.

The events we conducted like Handling Teenage years - a workshop for parents or why blogging can be a useful tool in increasing knowledge.These events have shown us that knowledge or experiences need to be told, shared for it to be understood, implemented and reviewed. These are opportunities to meet real individuals who share on their success points, failures in life and what others could learn.

So as a note I would urge women, mums or anyone to share your experiences. It helps one understand one's perspective to life better and surely helps others who can be in a similar dilemma like yours.