🧠Weekly Mind Sweep #107 | Manage Your Mind | Reality
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We live on a big moving rock, and nothing matters.
OK, well, coffee does, but work with me here.
In 2020, I had an epiphany: All the stuff we thought was crucial turned out to be our brains making up stories and giving meaning to the world around us. Reflecting on this statement feels a bit dramatic. Still, living in a global pandemic, this felt like a new reality.
As Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett describes reality in a Big Think video [1], our brains live in our skulls and rely on our senses to provide information.
Our experience of reality is a complex combination of sensory information and expectations.
With an outside-in approach, our brain must decipher what is going on.
It takes information from our eyes, ears, touch, and smell and categorizes the data against our past experiences. Then, we perceive what's happening out there. AKA predictive perception.
She continues to explain that when we hear a loud noise outside, our brains don't know the cause or the effect. So, it has to guess from your past experiences.
Our expectations influence how we perceive and experience our world based on our past experiences. There are different predictions based on different lifetime experiences.
Our brains shape and predict reality.
Wait.
So my reality isn't your reality?
With over 8.1 billion people worldwide, there are over 8.1 million realities out there?
Our brains categorize experiences, and society agrees to give certain things meaning—a way to predict, expect, and understand the world around us.
Dr Lisa Feldman Barrett gives a few examples of the meaning our society creates:
Money: pieces of printed paper equal monetary value.
Voting Ballot: the marks on printed paper are counted, and a winner is selected.
Lines in the sand: creating borders.
We impose meaning.
Take a moment to consider perception, self, and the very nature of reality.
Embracing the brain's role as a predictive machine allows us to move beyond the limitations of a passive observer and embrace our active role in constructing our own experiences. This new perspective opens doors to deeper self-awareness, a deeper understanding of our minds, and, ultimately, a more meaningful engagement with the world.
With this new perspective, what aspects of your experiences and perceptions could you reconsider or find new meaning?
[1] The Well video with Dr Lisa Feldman Barrett - approximately 7 minute watch time
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