Change The Meaning

Change The Meaning

We give meaning to every situation, experience and event in our lives. From the person who compliments us, bores us, flirts with us, cheats us, or provokes us – to the common stresses, struggles and challenges of daily life. All day, everyday, we give meaning to these circumstances and further reinforce and validate them by our own internal monologue of building ourselves up or tearing ourselves down – the cumulative effect of which gives birth to the beliefs about ourselves.

This automatic and ingenious brain function of applying meaning and assumptions to just about everything, and then reinforcing it with supporting dialogue, is utterly fascinating and amazing – except when it’s wrong. What happens when your assumptions, presumptions or the meaning you apply to matters are either incorrect or even correct, yet counterproductive and self-deprecating?

The meaning we give to certain aspects of our lives is what we react to, respond to, and they dictate our behavior, and later, our results, productivity and overall sense of balance. If you arrive at wrong or unhealthy conclusions, you’ll arrive at wrong or negative beliefs and the action that follows the belief will also be wrong. A vicious, downward spiral of unease and immobility.

We find ourselves believing and saying things like; nothing good ever happens to me; I always screw up, my life is a mess, I look like crap, I feel like crap, I’m too old, I have no energy, I’m not qualified, no one will hire me, I waited to long, I’ll never be happily married, I’ll never make enough money, who will take care of me, etc, etc.

What negative conclusions have you accepted about you? The details and specifics are not important. What is important is the meaning that you give to matters that involve you. And the meaning you give it, is a result of your perceived reality – not reality itself, therefore you can change it.

So if the meanings that you are forming, make you feel bad, sad or unfulfilled, then all you have to do is re-interpret or change the meaning that you apply to the various situations in your life. After all, you’re the one in charge, it’s your brain, and you can choose to interpret matters in a way that is healthy and productive and drives you to a more desirable, and satisfying objective.