The Interpreter

I'm having one of those experiences that are happening a bit more frequently in my life -- getting exactly what I need at the time that I need it, without me KNOWING that was exactly what I needed. In other words, I didn't force it, manipulate anyone/anything or "create" the outcome.

The same wise woman that offered me that earlier twist on prayer (we'll call her Sage from here on out) also lent me a book called "Loving What Is." I'm just getting started, but as you may have read in my previous posting, my search for the truth (as in, HOW to tell or see the truth) is "on." This book offers a series of 4 questions to be applied to a particular thought or feeling one is having and breaks it down. You get past your own programming and get to the root of it or to the basics. The author, Byron Katie, quotes the Greek philosopher Epictetus:

"We are disturbed not by what happens to us, but by our thoughts about what happens."

I get that. I know my thinking is twisted. I also know that some of my interpretive "skills" were taught to me by two similarly distorted human beings. So part of this process for me as an adult is to first recognize how much of my slant on things is truly MINE and how much of it is my parents' filter.

Another excerpt from the book that I appreciated, due to the "scientific" validation (read that someone else found it to be true, and it applies to me, so I am NOT crazy):

"Contemporary neuroscience identifies a particular part of the brain, sometimes called "the interpreter," as the source of familiar internal narrative that gives us our sense of self."

And:

"Perhaps the most important revelation is precisely this: that the left cerebral hemisphere of humans is prone to fabricating verbal narratives that do not necessarily accord with the truth."

And:

"The left brain weaves its story in order to convince itself and you that it is in full control...what is so adaptive about having what amounts to a spin doctor in the left brain? The interpreter is really trying to keep our personal story together. To do that, we have to learn to lie to ourselves."