A lot of people get caught up, being unable to separate an event from its meaning. In fact, an event can have many meanings, about as many as you can think up.
Once you realise meanings are more fluid than events, you can begin to choose meanings that are empowering, that help you be happy, and help you bring happiness to others. That is a power that human beings have.
You might have read the book, "Man's Search for Meaning". In the book, psychologist Viktor Frankl keeps wondering about the events as he watches them with his own eyes as a prisoner in a concentration camp. Many fellow prisoners have the perspective that they must survive to see freedom in order for life to have meaning. Frankl drew the opposite conclusion - that life must have meaning now, in the heart of suffering, in order to survive. So Frankl kept asking, "What might this mean?"
Even in our everyday lives, we find ourselves assigning meaning. We go to the park to take a break from work and think "Here I am wasting time when I should be working." Instead, we might ask the question, and say "Here I am, relaxing, recharging, enjoying the moment, simply to experience it," or come up with any answer that helps us see the positive purpose of our actions.
► Listen on DSound
► Listen from source (IPFS)