Change the meaning:Change the experience

Automation: We assign a meaning to our experience. Based on the meaning, we judge that experience. In general, assigning meaning is an automated process. This automation is carried out based on the database that one accumulates over the years. This database is nothing but our faith, belief, values & the experiences that we have gathered in life so far.

Examples: Consider two scenarios. In scene one, we are waiting at the traffic signal. Imagine that all of a sudden a man cut the traffic in red. In this instant, our immediate reaction is going to be offensive. Either we scold him or feel bad of him. This is natural automated response.

On the other hand, consider scene two, where we are witnessing the same incident in the traffic but this time we have our friend with us in the car. This friend has noticed a girl in the violated car & feels that the man has cut the traffic because the girl seems to be bleeding and the person seems to be in a urgency to take her to the hospital. In this context, our entire perception of the situation changes & we suddenly feel empathetic to the person. Now, our response is completely different than the automated response of scene one.

Third Person view: Our meaning to the experience changes when we look at the experience from the third person point of view. Our experience to the event will change with the change in the way how we assign a meaning. This is really powerful, given the fact that we don’t have control of the external events that happen in our daily life. But, certainly we have one hundred percent control in the way of we assign a meaning to the event. This changes our perception & hence, the experience in itself.

This is such a powerful nice technique in overruling the automated reaction thereby we change the perception & our experiences.

Summary: Event may be the same but the MEANING to the event varies from person to person. Meaning to an event comes well within. By mindful of the meaning that you assign, you can change the very experience of the event.

“Your MEANING to an experience is more important than the experience in itself”