If you cut your hand while chopping vegetables, the cause and effect will be clear.

If, on the other hand, you wake up in the middle of the night with nausea and an upset stomach … the cause might not be evident at all.

Was it something you ate? Are you sick? Is it your nerves? A new medicine?

When we don’t know the cause of something, we begin to craft a story in our minds. Like novice detectives or scientists, we piece together the story of what we believe to be true.

This happens outside of our personal health, too. We can easily find ourselves telling a story about why the country is the way it is, or why there are problems with the economy, or why we were or weren’t picked for something.

Whether we have evidence or not, we tell stories.

Be careful to recognize when you’ve woven together a story that has little basis in what’s actually known. Sometimes we tell a story so well that we forget it’s all invented.