We are meaning makers
“All meaning is self-created.”
–Virginia Satir
We are meaning makers.
I’ve been thinking a lot about this recently… from as simple as the meaning I ascribe to my morning coffee (ah, the sweet ritual) to the meaning I place on “success” in my business (a process of rewriting meaning and beliefs attached to work needing to be hard, stressful, intense to be valid or reflective of doing well or being enough). Even the meaning I attach to motherhood, which has and continues to require a complete reprogramming for acceptance to occur.
With meanings, we may find we dance between attachment and aversion, and also between what is pleasure (known and familiar) and what is pain (the unknown and unfamiliar).
Well before we take our first breath, we are making meaning. And as we grow, we create meaning from our experiences based on what we observe from those around us, the rules and ways of being we abide by and absorb, the emotional intensity and “lessons’ ‘ and beliefs we associate with our experiences… We create stories every minute, every day, to make meaning of this vast complicated beautiful world. And these stories, beliefs, and values house themselves in our subconscious mind.
This is all normal. We all do it.
And we also then create our reality based on the meaning we ascribe to our perceptions, the projections, biases and filters from which we interpret our world.
This can become, as you can imagine, problematic… especially when this framework dominates over 90% of our mind. It is from this place we unconsciously make limiting assumptions about others and about ourselves based on the model we’ve created in our subconscious around what an experience and our lens on that experience MEANS. We may project meaning on another person through our lens of how they looked, talked, acted toward us based solely on our past experience and model of our world. The trigger goes off, the association and all the emotions related to that association flood us, and perhaps we go right to a conclusion of “truth,” painting a reality that may block the potential of connection… that may block and distract the intention of the moment itself. And through these constructs from which we filter our perception and project meaning, we limit our world… we limit our own possibilities because we become hijacked to our default meanings rather than perceiving objectively what is truly present.
When we pause, we create an open equanimous space to view with a new lens. Adopting this lens is not always comfortable, but it begins to dissolve our clinging, our tension, our distaste, and allows us to reconnect to the power within… where we notice, observe, and become curious, as we invite a shift and transformation of the meanings that keep us blocked from embodying the changes we desire in our life.
Notice where you are placing intense meaning and focus. Is it helpful? Is it supporting you in embodying your best self? What might need to shift? What meaning are you giving that aspect of your life, that habit, that thing you avoid or cling to, that pattern?
And consider what it would be like to:
- harness your inner power to create meaning that expands your realm of curiosity, compassion, and connection…
- allow your ego to sit back in order to see with a humbled objective lens…
- allow your subconscious to bring these moments to your conscious awareness by noticing the meaning you place on the moments in your life…
- create space to reprogram the meanings that are robbing you of your sense of agency to live freely, leading with love as you embody the life you desire…
- make meaning that heals and enhances your existence, and ripples its impact out to others
Imagine what might be possible for you, then.
We are meaning makers. We get to choose the meaning we make… Every. Single. Day.
Let’s orient ourselves to create realities that heal ourselves and the world.
Let me support you in accessing the power of the subconscious mind for rewriting the limiting programs, creating new meanings that enhance and optimize the changes you want in your life.
