It can happen while sitting around sipping an extraordinary Australian cabernet….
Or between episodes of Bridgerton…..
Or even while giving simple directions to someone you love.
Things can get awkward and frustrating because communication is fundamentally flawed.
Even the best communication involves abstraction and guesswork on the part of both people.
It’s filled with errors on the part of the communicator and misunderstandings by the recipient.
Messages shared and messages received are rarely the same.
And, over time…patterns develop.
Communicating with any human being depends on putting an abstraction, or thought, into words as precisely as possible.
At first glance the recipient thinks s/he understands….but take a closer look… and you’ll see that they have to guess.
Does s/he mean exactly this? OR Does s/he mean exactly THIS?
The brain gets confused and it happens so fast that we don’t notice.
Even if we do….we rarely take time to check things out …because we’re not doing scientific research here…right? Instead, we move on.
The brain makes a quick interpretation and we make our decision from there.
Seems simple enough, right? But hold on.
We also ‘make meaning’ out of these new interpretations.
If there’s a meaning or interpretation we don’t like….well….the brain can take us on a harrowing roller coaster ride full of emotional ups and downs.
That’s when we develop a false sense of certainty….and the brain makes up even MORE stories we believe to be true.
It all happens in seconds and when the stories fit our narratives and beliefs…
…we get frustrated… rarely show mercy….and find someone to blame.
Sometimes, we even blame ourselves.
Perhaps…these self-created interpretations get in the way for all of us.
