The context makes all the difference

As the summer holiday progress, I’ve been noticing how different my experience of being at home with my family most of the time is to that of the early days of lockdown. So much is the same, we still have little social contact, we still visit very few places, and we have an intensity of time together. And yet, it is really different too. There is a defined end-date, the school term begins in September and it seems highly likely that children will indeed be attending classes in person.

As I ponder this I notice the importance of context, it is what gives experience meaning. We humans are meaning making machines, we continually make connections and interpret events. Without a context, it is hard to do this, and when the context changes, the meaning changes too. What had the makings of an ordeal suddenly feels like a summer holiday, despite the significant overlaps and similarities.

Why does this matter? It matters because the way you frame things for yourself has a profound influence on what you think and feel about them, and the qualities of your bodymind experience. If the way you are perceiving something is causing you pain, perhaps it is wise to come up with a range of other ways to see it. Change the context, change the meaning.

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