The Personal Narrative: the joan

The awareness of self is tapped through our many senses.

Although science stresses logic and deductive reasoning, we actually learn about self and the world by way of the myriad of experiences that we encounter.

At the basis of the ability to perfect one’s focus into an artful expression of self is the very necessity to get to know oneself. The simplest and sometimes the most innocuous happenings may lead us to a much greater understanding of who we are at our core.

It is Dr. Hageman's belief that taking that journey is one of the most exciting and important journeys we may take. One of the ways to capture the essence of who you truly are is to explore your past experiences from a vantage point of writing or recording a personal narrative about the experiences that shaped some of your basic attitudes, beliefs, and emotions.

Dr. Hageman suggests that defining and recording our personal narrative is a powerful way to touch a much deeper awareness of self. She also suggests that it is helpful to create your own personal brand identity. An example if this is the logo on this page.

Dr. Hageman's personal logo represents to her the core experiences that have shaped her. To understand more about how you might construct your own brand identity from your experiences, read Dr. Hageman's story. You will see that it is quite different that writing an orderly, sequential description of your experiences.

The excerpts from Dr. Hageman's personal story will give you a glimpse into who she is as a person, the reasons why she chose her work, and the simple, down to earth experiences that shaped her path.

When asked of why she wrote her personal narrative for others to see, listen to the audio recording below: