Speaker 1: I have no idea what I'm passionate about. I'm too
Speaker 1: old to start something new. People won't take me seriously
Speaker 1: because how I look. I can't go after my dreams
Speaker 1: because others rely on whether I'm not where I should.
Speaker 1: Will never overcome what happened to me in my past.
Speaker 1: I am exactly where I need to be. I am
Speaker 1: exactly where I need to do. I'm exactly where I
Speaker 1: need to be. Dominant stories are the stories that we
Speaker 1: tell ourselves about ourselves. I don't sound smart enough, I
Speaker 1: deserve to take up space. I'll never be able to
Speaker 1: do what I want, whether it's true or not. It
Speaker 1: affects how we act in the world. It affects the
Speaker 1: choices we make. It affects the risks we take or
Speaker 1: don't take. I'm Jess Weener, cultural expert and the host
Speaker 1: of dominant stories. I have wrestled with dominant stories, probably
Speaker 1: as far back as like eleven years old. Both my
Speaker 1: parents are pretty chronic dieters, and so there was a
Speaker 1: lot of focus on body image, a lot of fear
Speaker 1: around food. For me, Dominant stories is a great entry
Speaker 1: point for folks to realize that they've sort of programmed
Speaker 1: a belief system within themselves that is actually shaping the
Speaker 1: trajectory of their life. That little voice is still in there,
Speaker 1: and it's not our voice, it's someone else's. Those are
Speaker 1: all lies designed by culture and negative forces to keep
Speaker 1: you small. Like they don't want you to thrive, they
Speaker 1: don't want you to spread your wings. You know, we're
Speaker 1: really talking to the thinkers and the movers and the
Speaker 1: shakers of our world right now about what's shaping them.
Speaker 1: I didn't like my body in the first place. When
Speaker 1: I got the diagnosis, it just pissed me off even
Speaker 1: more and I was like, you always let me down.
Speaker 1: The point is not to rid yourself of the voices.
Speaker 1: It's just like, do you let them be in the
Speaker 1: driver's seat or The big goal is we can rewrite
Speaker 1: those stories, and that rewriting actually will change our lives.
Speaker 1: Feelings are like a compass. They tell us what direction
Speaker 1: to go, and if we don't pay attention to them,
Speaker 1: it's like walking around with a faulty GPS. You have
Speaker 1: no idea where you're going. Listen to Dominant Stories with
Speaker 1: me Jess Weener every Wednesday on the I Heart Radio app,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcast or wherever you listen to podcasts,