What Meaning Are You Placing On Your Experiences?
The Stories You Tell Matter — They Come From Mind And Become Matter.
In my culture, I grew up being told what it means to see doves. Yes, doves are viewed as a symbol of peace — but are they really that?
Seeing a dove doesn’t mean anything other than the meaning and significance we place on it. I dare say this is true for everything that comes our way — every experience, things others say, things they do. We are always creating meaning about our experiences and making a story out of it.
If that’s the case, what would happen if we started to examine and uncover the stories we tell ourselves about our reality? What would happen if we changed the meaning of the stories — or better yet, if the significance we placed on them dissolved entirely?
The verb to mean, means “to intend, to have in mind”. If All Is Mind like the Kybalion states, then what we have in our minds we create in our lives! So what meaning did I hold about doves that created and formed my reality and experiences?
One For Sorry, Two For Joy
Growing up in Zimbabwe, I learned a song that quickly inserted itself in my psyche, and created a belief about doves that I carried with me long into my adult years. The lyrics for this song, that pertains to doves, goes like this:
One for sorry
Two for joy
Three for visitors
Four for letter
I didn’t remember the rest, so I searched the web to see if I could find the complete version of the song — what I unearthed was astonishing!
Apparently my childhood experience is based off of an old English nursery rhyme called One For Sorrow, though with a different variation to the one I learned growing up! This English nursery rhyme had nothing to do with doves, but instead was connected to seeing magpies!
Shocking! — and yet, I love this because it further strengthens my perspective and shows me how interconnected we really are. It also hints at the extent of the uniformity of our beliefs.
Every time I saw one dove, I would expect something sad to happen — and it did. Every time I saw two doves, I believed it to be a sign that I would indeed experience something joyful that day — and I did. Without even having the language for what was going on back then, I was literally creating my own reality through my beliefs.
A belief is simply a thought that you believe to be true. ~ Nanice Ellis
Yes, it’s that simple. It begs the question — how many thoughts do you accept as truth? I bet there are many. Now it makes sense why spiritual teachers emphasize being aware of your thoughts, because they are a window into all of the beliefs you unknowingly carry— the very thing that pilots your behavior, your feelings and your life. Your thoughts are the undercurrent of all your experiences.
If our beliefs are mostly unconscious and are driving our behavior, it’s not going to help to merely change our thoughts though. We would need to uncover the beliefs that are running the show, by questioning the nature of our behavior and thoughts — and even that might be elusive if we consider how we don’t always see ourselves as we really are. We’re usually in the shadow in regards to the patterns that govern us. Some are clear as day while other patterns are much more deep-seated and obscure.
The Twitching Eye Superstition
Another belief I picked up on in my childhood years was the twitching eye concept. It was said that when your eye twitches on the upper eyelid, you’ll experience something positive. If, however, the twitch occurs on the lower part of the eyelid, then bad luck will abound.
Like all other beliefs I carried, I believed this to be true and had experiences that supported that belief — a vicious cycle.
The beliefs surrounding the twitching-eye phenomena, are beliefs which I thought to be predominantly exclusive to my culture. Another web search sends me on an additional shockwave! Cultural exclusivity is starting to feel like a myth at this point.
My search results are showing me that our beliefs are actually global and quite collective in nature. This eye-twitching phenomena happens to most of us, and yet the meanings placed on this experience are both similar and varied. These meanings depend on the cultural background and the truths people were fed about it.
I even read that in Chinese astrology, the various meanings placed on the eye twitching also depend on the time of day they occur! I had to laugh at this one! All of this further amplifies another perspective I hold, on how our beliefs can literally become our prisons — self-imposed imprisonment, whereas awareness of our beliefs becomes a source of empowerment.
You Create Your Own Reality
When we believe something to be true, we naturally create a feeling that corresponds with that belief. That feeling is then what further takes root and becomes the magnet, that draws towards us an experience that matches how we feel.
Long before I actually experience something sad, I’ve already created a belief based on a thought I’ve accepted as truth — example, I am going to experience something sad because my eye is twitching on my lower eye-lid.
I’ve made associations where they might have been none — a twitching eye is given significance that is conditioned by the culture. The belief of the meaning surrounding the twitching eye is held as true, and every time the experience (in this case the twitching eye) occurs, I expect — albeit unconsciously, the belief to manifest. When a sad experience finally happens, it further strengthens the belief, when all it is — in my opinion — is a feedback loop, showing me what I am believing and thus re-creating. Do you catch my drift?
The notion that we create our reality makes more sense to me now, in light of these childhood experiences. When we give importance to something where there isn’t inherently any, we are literally creating our own reality— we are making things real.
Words Matter! And They Really Don’t
Importance — import. Import comes from the Latin word importare:
from Latin importare “bring in, convey, bring in from abroad,” from assimilated form of in- “into, in” (from PIE root *en “in”) + portare “to carry,”
When we make something important, we are carrying it in us, thereby making it real. We are bringing it from the ethers into manifested reality.
Believing that your eye twitching is an omen of sorts is true. Believing that it isn’t an omen is also true. The reality of these truths — as in, what becomes real in relation to these two truths — is based on what significance you are placing on them. If it doesn’t signify anything other than the body doing what the body does, you become impervious to having a reaction, and therefore no meaning and matter is created about or around it.
Speaking Things Into Existence
If you say or feel like something has meaning, it has meaning. If you say or feel like it doesn’t have meaning, it doesn’t. Jesus said this in other terms— and I am now seeing how profound his words were. They were pointing us to the nature of reality — to how reality actually works!
And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you. ~ Matthew 17:20
Meaning/thought/belief carries energy, and it’s that energy-infused beam that attracts an experience to us, thereby forming our reality. We bring things to us just by being an energetic match to it — no words needed, for energy speaks a language of its own. The notion that we create our reality is simple, and yet complex.
In my example of the twitching eye, it’s not enough to just think that something is true. You have to believe it (remember a belief is merely a thought which you believe to be true), AND feel it! — making it important. There’s no faking your way in or out of it. Energy can’t be faked. Feelings are like the charger, powering up and magnetizing that experience to us. Maybe the belief is the intention? Again, I’m reflecting as I write this paragraph, so take it for what it is.
Either way, taking this trip down memory lane is teaching me how powerful our minds really are, and how the meaning we place on things and experiences — matter. They become matter — manifested in reality. You believe seeing one dove means bad luck — it will become your reality.
Thoughts and meaning matter to the degree we make them matter
I hate to sound like a broken record here — but Meaning matters! Your thoughts and stories don’t have to matter, but when they do matter, they create an impact that then becomes your reality. Not everything matters, but everything has the potential to matter — to manifest. Having a twitching eye doesn’t have to matter — doesn’t have to mean anything other than what it is, but your belief makes it matter.
So what importance are you placing on your experiences, that in turn are creating — or re-creating, your reality? What stories are you telling about your life and the experiences in it?
It all matters, and yet — at the end of the day it really doesn’t!
