Meaning is a powerful thing because most of us don’t realize how much of it we are making all day long. We inherit meanings. We absorb them from culture, family, society, age, gender, success, failure, money, beauty, usefulness. Then one day we look around and think life itself is the thing holding us in place, when really we may be relating to life through a story we never stopped to question.

A conversation with a client in Dublin opened this whole thing up for me. She was talking about being a woman of a certain age, and yet in the photos I saw, she looked radiant. Illuminated. Powerful. And there she was, telling me all the reasons she could not be what she already looked like she was becoming. Then I realized I do this too. We all do, in some way.

Yoga and Ayurveda remind us that we are not passive inside the meaning of things. Ahamkara, the I am maker, is always assigning, naming, identifying, deciding. The chair can be something to sit in, or it can be something to stand on so you can change a light bulb. The object did not change. The meaning did. That is where our power starts to come back.

A Map of Wisdom
Here are some of the places we go together in this talk:
✦ The Story You Keep Repeating
✦ Arguing Against Your Own Radiance
✦ You Are the Meaning Maker
✦ Ahamkara and the I Am Maker
✦ The Villain Can Become the Hero
✦ When Life Feels Meaningless

Something to Sit With
What meaning have I been giving my life that might be asking to be questioned, softened, or remade?

A Restorative Step
Take a couple of mins and notice one label you’ve been carrying. Too old. Too late. Too stuck. Too much. Not enough. Ask yourself, “Who gave this meaning to me, and do I still choose to carry it?”