Where Do We Know?

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Where are our beliefs? And, how do we know if we even believe them? For example, I know the word “purple”, but is my purple the same as yours? Just because society agrees on a word to represent the color, where is this story?

At first, it’s in the mind, labeled FACT. But to really know – to own it – is on a different level.

If we intentionally reshape the stories in our mind, we can experience our authentic selves (“Authentic” in this article refers primarily to being free of imposed identities).

Studies in neuroplastcity (The brain’s ability to form new neural connections) suggest we can actually CHANGE the results of earlier experiences – even when trauma has occurred.

Neuroplastcity is a fairly recent discovery. It means, basically, that our brain is malleable. It can be taught to override experiences and create new connections.

This is an exciting discovery! It wasn’t that long ago that we thought the brain had a limited number of neurons and cells, and that they each were assigned a specific role. For example, one might hold a memory, another recognizes the color red. We now know,however, that all of this is just the beginners guide to the brain! There’s so much more!

Methods That Are Useful to Rewire the Brain

Research has shown that just writing for a few minutes each day about anything can dramatically boost your happiness and sense of wellbeing.

Try This:

On a deeper level, try writing about an event that truly hurt you in some way. After venting (on paper), take a break. Then, re-write your story with the title “A Heroes Journey“. Notice that a change in perspective is a change in reality.

Crazy, right?

But all of our “truths”, our perceptions, are malleable. They are NOT factual.

My friend and trusted “guru”, Byron Katie, says it this way:

” In this world “I” is always you. I never cease to love what I create and give life to, which is you, me, everything.

How is it okay that children suffer? Look to your own suffering and ask yourself. End the suffering of one child in the world: you.

If you are suffering, you are a child, a child in awareness, innocently suffering your own lack of enlightenment, your own immaturity. As a child, the only possible way to suffer is to believe the thoughts arising in the mind.

The only way to suffer is to believe that you really believe what you think you believe.

Discovering your true self is the beginning of the end of suffering in your world. You have the power to end fear, and the end of fear is the end of war.

I invite you to take yourself to the paradigm-shift that is possible right here, right now.

Take a little walk into you and change the whole world!

Isn’t that what you really want?”

Discover your own innocent story, and give yourself the compassion you deserve.

The Meaning of Life (Wants to be) Revealed!

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Throughout time, people have wondered what life is about — is it all meaningless? Am I here to learn certain things? To resist certain things?

Regardless of what we believe about our place in the universe, it appears to be our nature to search for meaning.

And I believe there are patterns in our lives that imply we have lessons to learn during our lifetime.

We may ask ourselves: Why?…

Why do I keep getting into abusive relationships?

Why do I often feel like a victim?

Why can’t I relax in the moment with friends?

Why do people see me as unapproachable?

A HERO’S JOURNEY

Carl Jung, Joseph Campbell and other scholars have placed a lot of emphasis on the unconscious mind— the parts of ourselves that we know little about — yet an essential part of mind, as it controls much of our interpretation or experience of life. These wise men emphasize the need to do whatever it takes to make as much of the unconscious conscious in order to live a full, meaningful, authentic life.

So how can we make the unconscious more conscious?

As we journey through our lives, we can learn to interpret our experiences by understanding archetypal characters, looking for symbolism in our dreams, and becoming curious about the characters we relate to in stories.

1. DREAM INTERPRETATION

One avenue of discovery is focusing on our dreams, both day and night, and looking for clues in the symbolism. Keeping a Dream Journal, that is, waking and quickly writing down what we recall from a dream, can be a rich clue for unraveling our personal lessons for living a meaningful life. Accuracy isn’t important — it turns out that the words we choose become the clues to the unconscious mind.

EXAMPLE — I HAD A DREAM … where I had a set of keys that seemed very important, yet I fumbled and dropped them down a storm drain. My oldest brother had to help me retrieve them.

Symbolism:

  • OLDEST BROTHER, for me, represented maturity, authority, intelligence and wisdom.
  • KEYS represented my responsibility to take care of something important.
  • NEEDING HELP reminded me that, although awkward, it was ok to seek the wisdom of someone wiser than me.

2. STORIES

I think another avenue to self-discovery is in reading literature and/or watching shows. The unconscious seems to only be available through indirect means: a kind of charade; or archetypal imagery; metaphor and/or symbolism.

A good novel reaches around our ego defenses and potentially reveals to us the next step in our developmental journey. We identify with particular characters, abhor others, and may be attracted to others still. When we have an emotional responses to a character’s experiences, we grow ourselves without even trying. Unconsciously we have discovered an archetype just waiting to be given a voice. Music, poetry, even astrology, coincidence and tea leaves can lead to similar self-discovery!

Each is a potential window into our deepest parts of being.

  • EXAMPLE –– I love the story of “Alice In Wonderland“. I even love the

White Rabbit” song by “Jefferson Airplane”. Without being able to properly understand why I was so touched by the story, I was later able to recognize that it reflected some of my core values:

  • be curious.
  • Question the “rules”.
  • And enjoy the journey — no matter how strange.

3. Getting FEEDBACK

Another avenue to getting to the root of our purpose in life is to be open to feedback from others. As risky as this may feel, asking others about what they think of us can be revealing. The key is having a desire to really know who you are.

“Life is about floating on the seas of turbulence, drifting on the eddies and currents, flowing, and along the way, learning: whatever that may look like for each of us currently experiencing a mortal life.” 

~Joanna Hunter