You’re going to die with all of this still in your head.
Let’s gently lay it all down – so the noise quiets,
and something deep in you finally exhales.
Your mind is crowded. Your memories are scattered. And you’re tired of carrying it all.
Let’s turn the mental noise and emotional fragments into something you can actually hold —without overexerting, overthinking, or oversharing.
If you’re always processing, but never actually arriving, this might be why.
120 Stories You’ve Already Lived is a gentle Story Work starter exercise to lay your life out in front of you – so your inner world feels a little less noise,
and a bit more like something whole and steady.
Most people don’t think this deeply. That’s your gift.
And also, sometimes…
your overwhelm.
120 Stories You’ve Already Lived is a gentle Story Work starter exercise to lay your life out in front of you – so your inner world feels a little less noise,
and a bit more like something whole and steady.
You feel deeply.
You move fast.
And it’s never really
quiet in there.
120 Stories You’ve Already Lived is a gentle Story Work starter exercise to lay your life out in front of you – so your inner world feels a little less noise,
and a bit more like something whole and steady.
Is this you?
You’ve always felt things deeply.
Intensely.
You notice the way time moves –
and how it moves you.
You journal, capture, save, and document.
Not just to remember,
but to feel moments again.
It is part instinct.
Part logic.
Part legacy.
Part love.
The baseline of your inner world is alive, fast, and constant.
Connections. Ideas. Insights.
Mental snapshots. Parallel storylines. Vivid dreams.
It’s all swirling within, all the time.
Grounding practices help… for a moment.
Then, in the next moment,
your mind returns to your baseline:
mapping, sensing, tracking, carrying –
as it always has.
You are swimming in details and fragments,
but not enough throughline.
Not enough whole story.
Not enough you.
If that feels familiar,
you’re in the right place.
You are not scattered.
You are storied.
Keep reading.
what this is
120 Stories You’ve Already Lived is a one-sitting PDF you can print or open on your device.
Inside, you will find:
120 gentle prompts that point to ordinary, specific moments you have already lived, across four core areas of your life:
Meaningful People
Meaningful Places
Meaningful Experiences
Hard Stories
Space to start a ‘Tiny Story List’ – quick notes instead of full essays.
A Story Wheel to help you see patterns in what you remember, visualize where your stories cluster and see how different areas of your life feel right now.
Structured enough to hold you, light enough to meet you where you are.
What you’ll do
with it
Think of it as a menu.
Inside, you will find:
Skim the prompts and circle or mark any that tug at you, spark a memory or a feeling. You do not need to touch all 120.
Choose 3–5 that tug at you most and jot a few words or phrases for each.
Notice which stories a) feel resourcing, b) which feel unfinished, and c) which you’re not ready to touch just yet.
Finally, if you want, bring one of those stories into your journal, therapy, creative practice, or about a million other ideas to play with it.
Not a project. A self-paced exercise to see your life from a zoomed-out view – with a little more coherence and care.
why this matters
You might be wondering, “What is the point of bringing my stories to the surface if I don’t know what to do with them?”
Because when life has been a lot, everything can swirl and blur together, trapped in a liminal space that keeps us scattered, disoriented and disconnected.
This beginner Story Work exercise helps you:
see how much you have actually lived, instead of only noticing what hurts – without bypassing or toxic positivity.
spot patterns in what lights you up, what drains you, and what still feels unfinished.
gather raw material you can bring into your future Story Work practice, creative projects, and more.
All in all, this Story Work exercise is the beginning of being in relationship with the experiences you’ve already lived – without having to muster up a ‘lesson learned’, a reframe, a rewrite, or anything else.
{why does THAT matter?}
But maybe part of you thinks, ‘I don’t have any stories.’ Or, ‘My stories are mostly a bunch of bad memories.’
That is so normal.
I hear this all. the. time.
The point here is not to create a perfect narrative. It is to notice what you have lived through and give it a little more shape and care.
You do not need to have a plan for every story. Simply seeing them – and seeing yourself inside them – is the first step toward feeling steadier.
who this is for
Reflective adults whose minds can’t rest until they’ve made sense of what’s unfolding – because it’s how they stay internally organized.
Those who think in layers, feel with depth, and notice patterns without trying.
Those who’ve lived through loss, ambient grief, burnout, diagnosis, reinvention, or the ache of watching parents age, or kids grow, way too fast.
The ones who’ve done it all: rested, journaled, got into your body, therapied, belief-worked, inner-child-ed…
And still – the intellectual superstorm persists.
If one more person says “reframe the thoughts,” you might fully lose your shit.For caregivers, creatives, therapists, writers, artists, founders and deep-feeling thinkers who hold everyone else’s stories – and are finally ready to tend to their own.
Because the real work isn’t slowing down around what you’ve lived.
It’s actively making sense of it.
If you’ve always felt like your mind and emotions are collaborators, not enemies – this is for you.
what you might be wondering
Isn’t 120 story prompts overwhelming?
You never have to touch all 120.
Most people start with a handful of prompts and leave the rest for later.
The abundance is there so you can be choosy.
Will this make me feel like I need to fix myself?
This isn’t about fixing – it’s about witnessing.
The goal isn’t to excavate more flaws or find something to heal.
It’s about noticing what’s been true, what still lingers, and what stories want to be seen – without immediately needing to tidy or transform them.
What if hard stories come up?
You’re invited to move slowly, skip anything that feels too sharp, and only go as far as feels safe.
You can keep this entirely private or use it with your therapist or support team.
Is this about healing old wounds or finding the bright side?
Neither – and both – and more.
This isn’t a hunt for pain to process or a gratitude practice dressed up as reflection.
It’s about being in honest relationship with the full spectrum of your stories (you have hundreds of them, btw): the ache, the joy, the meaning, the confusion, the parts you’re still in conversation with.
Some stories may soften. Some may sharpen.
Some may just want to be named.
You get to decide what to do, if anything, with what you find.
I’ve done so much inner work already – is this going to be more of the same?
Nope. This isn’t another belief-flipping, mindset-resetting, one-size-fits-all framework.
Story Work gives your mind and your emotions a shared task: to work with specific, lived moments from your life. It’s a practice that starts from your stories, not from someone else’s script.
How long is this going to take?
As long as you want.
Some people spend 20 minutes with one prompt. Others spread it out over weeks.
There’s no required pace, and no finish line. You can revisit the prompts again and again as your stories shift over time.
This is a resource, not a race.