Interpretation Is Everything
HI!♡
I get really excited about each read of this newsletter, so HI and THANK YOU!
Now, this was really on my heart to write about, maybe it's for you - stay with me for a moment of teaching.
According to therapist and trauma teacher Courtney Armstrong, it isn’t just the traumatic or difficult events that cause us to get stuck in our pain. It is our interpretation of those events.
Interpretation is everything.
Two people could experience the same car accident, and based on their different interpretations could have a completely different trajectory emotionally. One might believe it is somehow their fault they got hit, while the other might believe it was a terrible accident and they have a second chance at life.
Their healing, or difficulty on the healing journey, will vary greatly based on these interpretations of the same event. How do you think the person blaming themselves for the accident that wasn’t their fault fairs? They would probably have a much harder time, then the person who sees this as a terrible accident.
Your interpretation of painful events in your life, from big to small, will impact how you digest, move through, and ultimately heal from what happened to you.
Naming a correct interpretation of painful experiences is essential.
It is crucial to have a correct understanding of what happened to us and who we are.
Often we get stuck in pain because of our shameful interpretation attached to it.
And, laying down the false interpretations you have carried can be incredibly freeing.
Here's what I want to leave you with today:
If a wrong interpretation of painful events can greatly impact our healing in big moments (believing it is your fault when it actually isn't) - what about all the small moments? The everyday ones?
What about the moment you stub your toe and call yourself stupid?
What about the moment you trust your gut, but things are still hard, and you decide you're not trustable?
What about the moment someone doesn't get back to you and you decide you're not likable?
What about the moment you receive disappointing news and you decide you're not good enough?
You see, we all will have everyday moments of pain - and our interpretation of those small moments (just like in big moments) greatly impacts how we will move through them.
QUESTIONS for everyday moments:
Is my interpretation of this event accurate?
Is my interpretation of this event based on an old narrative (ex: "I'm unloveable") that got triggered?
What might a neutral third party point out about my interpretation: is it fair to me?
In loving summary,
Who you are is separate from what has happened to you. And learning to separate your pain from a shaming interpretation - in big and everyday small moments - can help you sit in more loving truth about who you are...which impacts everything. And when knowing who you are is based in loving truth, well that is a much softer and kinder place to live.
With love,
Monica
Recent Episodes:
Episode 100 -
Mental Health Check In - Telling Yourself the Truth
(a gentle approach)
24 min
This month we are talking telling yourself the truth - in a very gentle way. Sometimes learning to practice this in really small ways, without any pressure to act, can help us in seasons of confusion, or feeling overwhelmed, or feeling disconnected from ourselves.
(Each month, Still Becoming brings you a Mental Health Check-In episode. These episodes are focused on mental health, emotional health, or personal growth, and involve a short teaching and a few take aways in around 15 to 20 minutes. The idea is to take a therapeutic topic or technique and expand it to help us in our everyday lives.)
Finally,
"We do not think ourselves into new ways of living,
we live ourselves into new ways of thinking."
- Richard Rohr
PS - An important next step for publishers to consider the book I'm writing is to have a substantial email subscription list. This, thank goodness, has become my favorite way to connect and serve with the work I do creatively. But I need your help: If this newsletter is meaningful to you can you point people you know to subscribing to it also? Here's the link. You can just copy and paste to share it. Thank you so much. ❤️