[Neurons] 2012 Meta Reflections #62

[L. Michael Hall]

From: L. Michael Hall

Meta Reflections 2012  #62

December 24, 2012

Empowerment Series #40

 

PUSHED BY DRIVES,

PULLED BY MEANING  - #2

 

 

When it comes to the human heart- the human heart is designed to leap to and
for meaning.  It always does.  Watch someone down and out encounter a rich
and robust meaning for his or her life, what do you then see?  You will see
that person's heart leaping with energy and vitality and meaningfulness!
Meaning is that transformative.

 

Here's the thing-when a human being has more meaning, he or she has more
vitality.  And conversely, when a person has less meaning, that person has
less vitality, and that means more boredom, apathy, and indifference.  And
where there is boredom, apathy, and indifference, human beings do not do
very well.  That's when they start getting into trouble and become
destructive to themselves and/or to others.  If we want to find the root
causes of violence, crime, drug addiction, and other forms of human
diminition, we could do no better than to start here.

 

Now if our normal states of consciousness thrills with excitement when there
is an increase in meaning, just imagine what happens when there is a sudden
surge of meaning, that is, an explosion or flood of meaning.  What then?
Peak experiences- that's what then happens!  Then we have one of those
special moments when time stands still, when we step into the Eternity of
the Now, when one or more of our intentions are fully combined with our
attention which is fully activated and focus on a single thing that
captivates our mental-emotional-personal-and-relational engagement with
life.

 

Here's something really weird about these joyful peak experiences, they not
only occur when we are experiencing some moment of glory, wonder, delight,
pleasure, triumph, celebration, etc., but they also occur in contexts that
are the opposite.  They also occur in the strange context of crisis, danger,
and threat.  It is in the crisis when valued and even sacred meanings are
threatened that we discover and then rise up to protect our cherished
meanings.  It is in such crisis moments that all of our attention becomes
singularly focused and concentrated on one objective.   Our "will" is then
fully activated and, as it becomes energized, we feel aroused from passivity
to proactivity.

 

Actually, it is usually not during the times of peace and tranquility that
we experience peak experiences for then our meanings are more docile and
quiet.  No.  It is when life is turbulent and stormy, when challenges come
our way in the form of problems and the situation looks bleak and
unsolvable.  And why do peak experiences come to us at those moments?
Probably because "will" needs an object- an intense and challenging purpose.
And when that happens, the experience becomes highly meaningful.

 

It is meaning that sharpens your appetites for life.   Why?  Because when
you "hold an idea" in mind which you deeply interest yourself in, you begin
a chemical reaction in your body and brain- one that will then create
something new, that will give birth to something new.  This is the creative
process par excellence.  Inventing, creating, and holding an exciting
meaning inevitably causes your heart to leap and when you do, you leap
upward into the transcendent-like state of a peak experience.  And as Maslow
noted, this gives you a momentary experience of the self-actualizing
mind-set, attitude, and experience.  And because it's positively addictive,
you will want more.

 

What causes this magic state and experience of the heart leaping?  Part of
it is caused by the process of creating and then holding a meaningful idea.
That's because when you do that, you are exercising your "will" and as you
do, your "will" is becoming intention>attention active.  On the intention>
side, you are intending, setting a purpose, creating a desired future, and
activating a self-organizing feature in your mind-body system.  On the

>attention side, you are now aligning your attentions to do service for your

intentions.  So together, as you internally create and hold an idea in mind,
you are engaged in an effortful activity, the effort of what we call "will."

 

On the intention> side you are asking and answering the directional
questions that begins any and every human adventure:  What do you want?
What are you seeking to achieve?   What is valuable to you?  What is
important and highly worthwhile of your focus and energy?  All of these kind
of intentionality questions deliberately awakens meanings within you.  And
as the meaningful increases, you not only become- you become more alive, but
also more real.  By way of contrast, the person without this lacks meaning
and meaningfulness and so failing meaning the person becomes diminished
and/or goes looking for substitutes.

 

Yet meaning must be performed.  It is never enough to just create meaning or
hold it in mind, you have to live it.  You have to embody it so that it
governs your sense of self, so that it becomes you, and when that happens,
then all of your actions and emotions are embodying or performing the
meaning.  What is an emotion?  It is the feel of meaning.  What is a
behavior?  It is the performance of meaning.  And except for purely
mechanical reactions, everything you do from the time you get up in the
morning to the time you go to bed at night is performing some meaning.

 

But what meaning?  Ah, yes, that is the question?  What meaning are you
performing?  In Neuro-Semantics we explore a person's inner matrix of frames
to answer to that question.  And using the Meta-Model of Language from NLP,
we distinction meaning as (1) "understanding" (what you select and identify-
what is it?  What you linguistically label- what do you call it?
Cause-effect- how does it work?), (2) "significance" (what is its value?  Do
you deem it important or unimportant?), and/or (3) "intention" (what is your
purpose, agenda, motivation?). 

 

It has been said many times by many of the greatest philosophers and
thinkers that human greatness lies in our ability to be greater than our
conditions.  Viktor Frankl described this in terms of being able to cope
with a horrific context of a concentration camp through his ability to
choose and live his meanings.  He refused to allow his conditions to
determine his meanings or his responses.  And he succeeded.  He not only
endured the trauma of having his personal world ripped asunder, but he came
out of it un-traumatized and able to live a full and effective life in
contributing via his creation of Logo-Therapy.

 

In a similar way, when you believe that your greatness also lies in your
ability to be greater than your conditions, you wake up to the extent and
greatness of your meaning-making powers.  This is courage in action.  It is
putting yourself into a purposeful orientation.  And in this way you come
alive to the energy and vitality of life- your heart leaps! 

 

 

L. Michael Hall, Ph.D.

                Neuro-Semantics Executive Director 

                Neuro-Semantics International

P.O. Box 8

Clifton, CO. 81520 USA                             

                1 970-523-7877 

                Dr. Hall's email:
<mailto:meta at acsol.net\hich\af31506\dbch\af31505\loch\f31506> meta at acsol.net


     

    

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