[Neurons] 2017 Neurons #11 Rising Up to Meaningfulness
L. Michael Hall
meta at acsol.net
Sun Mar 5 22:58:58 EST 2017
From: L. Michael Hall
2017 "Neurons" #11
March 6, 2017
The Big Idea in Neuro-Semantics #3
RISING UP TO
MEANINGFULNESS
"The meaning of life is meaning: whatever it is, wherever it comes from, a
unified purpose is what gives meaning to life. "It is not enough to find a
purpose that unifies one's goals; one must also carry through and meet its
challenges. The purpose must result in strivings; intent has to be
translated into action." (Flow, 217)
We start with meaning as in "making sense" of things, but it does not end
there. In fact you could be highly intelligent and able to "make sense" of
a lot of things, and yet simultaneously be unable to experience life and the
wondrous daily mysteries of it as meaningful. That's an entirely different
kind of subjective and one that requires a different skill set. Here also
is a distinction in Neuro-Semantics that differs from NLP. NLP focused
almost exclusively on meaning1 -the making of meaning in the sense of making
sense of things. In Neuro-Semantics we include a strong emphasis on
meaning1 and then we move to meaning2 -the making of meaning in the sense of
create sacred meanings about things.
Meaning2 as Meaningfulness.
Once there is a structure of meaning, it can be meaningful or meaningless or
anywhere in between. This aspect of meaning speaks about the quality of the
meaning and refers to the significance given to the meaning. Meaning2
refers to the quality of the experience. When something is loaded with
meaning- given lots of value and significance- we enter into it
wholeheartedly so we are totally engaged.
"An experience is meaningful when it is related positively to a person's
goals. Life has meaning when we have a purpose that justifies our
strivings, and when experience is ordered." (Flow, p. 244)
Meaning2 refers to the quality of the experience. When something is loaded
with meaning - given lots of value and significance, we enter into it
wholeheartedly so we are totally engaged.
Once we "make sense" of something, our concern shifts to asking, Is it
meaningful? Is that all there is? The purpose of endowing life with
significance goes beyond survival now it deals with the quality of life.
Now we focus on thriving as human beings, to living with purpose.
Living with purpose means to really live, to take charge of the quality of
your life. Here what we fear is not hunger or thirst, not homelessness or
losing a job. Here we fear and seek to avoid despair, futility, passivity,
being a victim, being miserable.
When we find life meaningful (i.e., meaning2), we develop an intention or
purpose to do one or more of the following:
Improve the quality of life and experience, to humanize life.
Enjoy immediate experience, appreciate, take pleasure in life,
cheerful.
Sacralize, value, and create harmony of mind.
Choose ownership, responsibility, "I choose" my action as my
response.
Be resilient, to respond with courage, and perseverance.
Challenge, choose significant goals, not trivial ones that
stagnate our development.
Purpose, set a reason to be, connect things to overall vision.
Turn into a flow experience, look for challenges, translate
threats into enjoyable challenges to use one's skills.
If this language sounds "spiritual," that's because it is. To speaks to the
human spirit more than to the mind. Meaning1 speaks to the mind, to what is
rational as it builds up a solid understanding about what things are and how
they work. But that does not speak to the heart. It does not inspire
people to live at their best, to extend themselves, to open their eyes and
develop a "continued freshness of appreciation." That phrase comes from
Maslow which he used for the subjects of his self-actualization studies. He
said that at the height of living a self-actualizing life is having a
"continued freshness of appreciation."
Meaning1 - here once you understand what things are and how they work, you
set goals and use your intentionality to set your direction. Here you
"make sense" of things by connecting events in a causal way to create
coherent patterns in life. Here you create order and you order experience
around some theme, this brings a sense of structure and coherence in your
mind and actions.
Meaning2 - here you do not just establish goals, but you look further and
set final purposes, the overall significance of your life. What are the
long-term consequences of your goal? Without this you probably will not
persist. You will give up when things get tough. Here you gain a sense of
your life's mission. Here you identify what you are about, what makes your
life count, and the legacy that you'll leave.
Meaning1 Meaning2
"Make Sense" of things Create
Meaningfulness
The good life - level 1 The good
life - level 2
Orders life
Enriches life
Gives structure Gives
purpose
Deals with Form Deals
with Values
Goal: Understanding
Goal: Significance
Rules for action
Flow as peak experience
Coherent patterns
The importance & mission of life
Attentional focus: immed. goal
Intentional focus: purpose
To live, survive, get along To live
fully and abundantly, to be your best
Biological survival
Aliveness of spirit and heart
Ideas that matter for coping
Ideas that matter for thriving, flourishing
Quantity: facts
Quality: experience
Study external factors
Study internal factors
Health, economics culture
Consciousness, mind, emotion,
Status, relationships
Meaning, community
Talents, skills, competence
Love, joy, appreciation
Operations of the mind Operations of
the spirit (significance, value)
Focusing to order things Alignment to
create harmony values.
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
ISNS new logo
What is Neuro-Semantic NLP?
Neurons: Get your free subscription to the weekly International \Post on
Neuro-Semantics by Dr. L. Michael Hall. Subscribe at:
wwww.neurosemantics.com
Coaching: For world-class Coach Training - The Meta-Coaching System,
www.neurosemantics.com/metacoaching Meta-Coach Reflections sent every
Wednesday to the group of Licensed Meta-Coaches.
www.metacoachfoundation.org
Self-Actualization: Neuro-Semantics launched the New Human Potential
Movement in 2007, for information about this, see
<http://www.self-actualizing.org/> www.self-actualizing.org
NSP --- Neuro-Semantic Publications: Order books from Neuro-Semantic
website, <http://www.neurosemantics.com/> www.neurosemantics.com click on
Products and Services and then the Catalogue of books. Order via paypal.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://pairlist8.pair.net/pipermail/neurons/attachments/20170305/82b1f63f/attachment-0001.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 10627 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <https://pairlist8.pair.net/pipermail/neurons/attachments/20170305/82b1f63f/attachment-0001.jpg>
More information about the Neurons
mailing list