Friday, February 06, 2015

Experiences with Multiple Meanings

Today's DailyOM brought to you by:
Click here for 14 Day Yoga Fat Burner
 

 
February 6, 2015
Experiences with Multiple Meanings
The Understanding Underneath

by Madisyn Taylor

The refined impression you glean from your experiences after contemplating their significance can add a new richness and texture to your life.


Though we humans are self-aware, we nonetheless cannot distance ourselves from the world around us and have a natural tendency to ascribe meaning to all that we experience. The significance we perceive in our experiences is rooted in our observation of patterns as they relate to ourselves. One situation has the power to teach us about life because it exposes us to something unfamiliar. Another touches our emotions deeply by enabling us to see how fortunate we are. Yet our initial impressions of an experience may not wholly reveal the true significance of that occurrence because our full response to an experience is like an onion with many layers that all have disparate meanings. Consider that a sunrise may stun us visually while simultaneously evoking memories of childhood and reminding us that each new day is a rebirth.

If you take the time to examine your experiences closely, you will discover that your original impressions may only be a part of a larger story of significance. Peeling away the layers of an event or incident can be a fun and interesting process if you allow it. To begin, relive your experience in your mind's eye and from multiple perspectives if possible. Your interpretation of any situation is based not only on facts but also on feelings, beliefs, and your values. As you ruminate upon your experience, spend a few moments contemplating how you felt when it began and how your feelings had changed by its end. Ask yourself what abstractions, if any, it awakened in your mind. If an experience stirs up questions within your soul, it may be that in striving to answer them a new layer of meaning may reveal itself to you.

The significance of an experience may remain hidden to you for some time. The meaning of an event can change when viewed from another context or may only become apparent after intense meditation. An incident that seemed superficial may unexpectedly touch us deeply later in our lives. If you take a truly open-minded approach to your examination of each new level and do not shy away from revelations that could prove painful, you will learn much about your relationship to the world around you. And the refined impression you glean from your experiences after contemplating their significance can add a new richness and texture to your life.


DailyOM Course Spotlight

Heal Yourself with Writing
by Catherine Ann Jones

Our lives may be determined less by past events than by the way we remember them. You are invited to come aboard this inner adventure that offers a step by step journey of discovery and re-visioning through focused journaling. Throughout the eight sessions, you will be engaged in exercises designed to facilitate healing and transformation. Telling stories about our past through focused journaling can help change our perspectives to enable healing and empowerment. In this way, we are able to make meaning out of memory and put the past where it belongs - behind us. Healing and transformation are only possible through changing one's perspective from within. In this way, global healing takes place one individual, one tribe, at a time. What story are you living? How do you choose to remember your story? How do we put together the pieces of our past? How can we rewrite our life story so that pain becomes meaningful and actually promotes growth and transformation? One answer lies i! n focused journaling. Join award-winning writer and global teacher Catherine Ann Jones in this course. No writing experience is necessary.

> Get the first lesson now


Top 10 DailyOM Courses:

1. Permanent Weight Loss with Self-Hypnosis
2. Break the Grip of Past Lovers
3. Call in Your Beloved with Ease
4. Reinvent Your Self-Image
5. 8 Secrets to Releasing Stubborn Weight
6. Overcoming Self-Sabotage
7. The 4-Minute Peaceful Warrior Workout
8. Overcoming Creative Anxiety
9. Clear Your Home, Clear Your Life
10. A Year of Rumi

New Courses | All Courses


What do you think?
Discuss this article and share your opinion

Want more DailyOM?
Register for your free email, or browse all articles

  The Understanding Underneath

Share the OM:

Email this to a friend
Printable version
Save in My DailyOM
Discuss this article

Free USA Shipping On All Orders

Deal of the Day:

Soulful Love Journals (Set of 3 Journals)
$17.59 Buy Now
$34.85 (save $17.26)
(Price for this week only)

On-line Courses:


Stop Being a Victim, Become a Creator
by Isha Judd


Meditation for Spiritual Awakening
by Jim Malloy

From the Library:
Discover Your Soul's Path Through the Akashic Records: Taking Your Life from Ordinary to ExtraOrdinary
by Linda Howe

More DailyOM:

  • On-line Courses
  • Soul Readings
  • Today's Horoscopes
  • Shop the Marketplace
  • Join the Community
  • Home | Gift Shop | My DailyOM | Marketplace | Community | Archives | Share The OM | Contact Us
    Subscribe | Change Email | User Settings | Unsubscribe | Privacy Policy | Disclaimer | Gift Shop FAQ | Advertising Info
    Make DailyOM Your Homepage | Link To Us | Publish DailyOM On Your Website

    © 2004-2015 DailyOM - All Rights Reserved
    No portion of this site can be reprinted without express permission
    Artwork by Wang Chang-Ming

    No comments: