Page Text: EMS Explained
Why did I choose this title for my blog?
My work as a clinical psychologist was with people who were experiencing what our culture calls a psychosis. When I started work in the NHS most people felt that these experiences were meaningless. I disagreed. I found myself using the three words of the title as a kind of mantra to remind myself of my conviction.
There’s more to it than that.
We’re all a bundle of feelings, intentions and thoughts, and we all matter — we all matter very much. Only one word I could think of captures all of that.
“This means a lot to me,” we say when we have a strong feeling about something.
“That’s not what I meant,” we say when someone has misunderstood the thought we were trying to explain.
“I didn’t mean to do it,” is our way of saying that what we did was unintentional.
And most of all when I say “You mean a lot to me,” I’m saying that you really matter to me.
So, those three simple words mean quite a lot in every sense of that mercurial word.
And perhaps most importantly of all, it’s worth remembering that we’re all meaning-makers. We can’t help weaving webs of meaning with our words and stories, and when those meaning systems that we make mean a lot to us they shape our sense of who we are and of the world we live in: they also shape our actions and our relationships with others which in turn cannot help but change the world for better or for worse.
We need to ensure that the meanings that we make are really the best that we can manage. There’s a lot at stake. I hope this blog will help me and help you make the best possible sense of this rich and complex world in which we live. If we do it’s my belief we can build a better self and create a better culture for our children to grow up in.
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