THE PAST GIVES MEANING TO THE PRESENT


Every time we see, hear, touch, or smell anything or anybody, we need to make meaning of it. We make meaning by checking our past experience.

We have two main kinds of meaning: intellectual meaning and emotional meaning. It’s easy to update intellectual meaning. When we get a new vehicle or a new president, it’s easy for us to update the information.

It’s difficult to update emotional meaning. It’s a different part of our brain. Much of what we use for meaning comes from our childhoods and infrequent intense negative experiences of our lives (trauma). What we learned and decided about ourselves and others at 7 years old or 10 years old may still be the predominant way we make meaning as adults. Sometimes these meanings are pleasant or helpful and sometimes they are unpleasant and cause problems. A smell, a song, or a holiday setting may bring us pleasant feelings or upsetting feelings. It depends on our past experience.

Traditional talk therapy has NOT been good at updating emotional meaning. Discussing and thinking happens in a different part of our brain. Talking can help us change our perceptions and help us manage our responses, but most people are still left with the same basic responses.

The feelings that go with a memory processed with Brainspotting and EMDR become neutral or close to it. When the emotions of negative memories become neutral or close to it, the meaning of things in the present changes. People are less triggered by things, they react less intensely, they are more relaxed, more in the present, more able to think on their feet, and feel better about themselves.