Psychology Of The Future: The Power Of Going Meta

Question: Have you ever gone meta?

...Umm axios, what do you mean by gone meta?

I mean, have you ever looked at your thoughts or feelings from a different level?

Hmm… I'm not sure. Could you give an example?

Okay well, have you ever watched a movie or show where the character suddenly begins to interact with the cameraman?

A good example of that would be a show like “The Office” or “Parks and Rec” where the characters will either non-verbally (or directly) reference the camera or viewers.

Ron Swanson's hilarious side comments would be lost forever had the show not utilized this brilliant meta-perspective.

This adds an entirely different dimension to the story, would you agree?

Well this is what I mean by going meta...

It’s a powerful concept and I'm going to show you how you can utilize this power to significantly improve your life.

By doing so, you can learn to consciously:

- Take complete control over your emotional state.
- Detach from unresourceful or disempowering feelings.
- Choose how you want to feel in the moment.
- Add another dimension of perspective to your experience.

And it all begins with a simple tweak in your language...

Ready to learn how to do that?

Great! Let me show you how by first deconstructing what this meta thing really is...

The Meaning Of Meta

Meta is a word that has a variety of meanings.

These meanings all interconnect in one way or another. I'll give three definitions of meta for you now:

Going meta can mean to change position or condition.

The most well known word or natural process of this type of meta would be the process of metamorphosis.

This is of course where a caterpillar changes it’s condition from an insect that can only crawl, into a butterfly that can fly!

Meta can also denote a position in space as coming behind, after, or beyond something.

A very practical example of this form of meta would be the bones in your hand.

You have carpals, which are the bones that exist at the base of your hand and wrist, then you have the meta-carpals, the bones that come after or exist beyond the carpals.

These are the base bones of each one of your fingers!

Our final example of meta is the kind that we’ll be specifically focusing on today as it references our language.

We can go meta with our language by referencing a higher level of thought.

I can demonstrate this to you with a quick experiment. I just need to borrow a thought from you real quick - you ready?

Think about a time when you felt incredibly joyful…

Can you remember a time when you felt this way?

Now...I’m going to ask you another question and this is where we’re going to go meta with this thought.

Ready? Here it comes…

What did you think about that joyful experience?

I'll ask again so you can really understand what I'm asking here...

What did you think ABOUT that joyful experience?

Now, whatever you thought just now, was a meta-thought.

Why?

It’s because you just had a thought ABOUT a thought.

You went above and beyond the first thought to a higher level thought.

axios, that’s cool but why does that matter at all to me?

Great question. Simply put:

Meta-thoughts control your experience.

The Power Of Going Meta

So you now have a basic idea of what going meta is right?

Moving forward here, I’m going to show you how to go meta with your mind so that you can effectively utilize your meta-thoughts and a conscious meta-language in a powerful way.

But first, you need to understand why this is even important to understand, right?

Right! So let’s dive in.

I’m going to start with an example that you’ll understand immediately.

Once you understand this concept, you’ll really start to get why your meta-thoughts are important.

If you were to make the statement:

I am afraid.

What does that mean?

It means you are scared or fearful, right?

Obviously.

Now, let’s take this to a meta-level and see what happens.

What I’m going to do is add in a feeling ABOUT this first feeling.

It could look something like this:

I am excited about feeling afraid.

Now… what does that statement mean now?

Are you still afraid?

Well… kind of… but in a completely different way right?

The experience has changed quite a bit, hasn’t it?

I am excited about feeling afraid.

If you were really excited about being afraid… are you really feeling afraid at that point?

Not really, right?

Excitement is actually dominating the experience.

You are excited!

And that leads us to our next point...

The Meta Thought Governs The Experience

We can think things, and then we can have thoughts about what we thought.

We can feel things, and then we can have feelings about what we felt.

The thought ABOUT the original thought controls the experience.

In example, if I told you to think about the holocaust, you might have some very dark thoughts.

But then if I asked you to think ABOUT your thoughts about the holocaust (a real tongue-twister), then suddenly the experience changes.

It feels more detached from the original thoughts, doesn’t it?

Because we’ve moved to a higher level of thought we’re literally moving to a higher level of experience.

It's like walking outside and observing a mountain. Then taking a picture of the mountain and observing it from that perspective. I could then add a filter onto it and post that image to instagram. In that moment, the experience of the mountain changes significantly.

The experience above governs the experience below it because we are now observing from a different dimension.

As we shared earlier, we can also have a feeling ABOUT a feeling.

In example, if I told you to connect to a time when you felt really sad, you might have some very sad thoughts or feelings.

But then if I asked you how you feel ABOUT your feelings when you felt sad, then suddenly the experience would change.

For me, there was a time where I was extremely depressed and if you asked me how I felt about that time of being extremely depressed, I would say:

I feel empowered by it. It’s what needed to happen in order for me to be the person I am today. Without that experience, I would not have the strength and will that I do today. I am grateful for the experience of depression.

Clearly we don’t all share this perspective, but I did want to give you an example of how going meta can significantly change how you interpret and perceive an event.

The Meta Exercise

Ready to go meta in your life?

Well guess what? You can.

The beauty and power to this concept is that you can always choose to go meta to your experiences.

This is especially powerful when you’re really in the thick of it.

You know, those times when you’re really feeling something.

Maybe you’re feeling angry in the moment.

Or you’re feeling anxious, or confused, or afraid…

When we’re experiencing intense emotion in the moment it feels VERY REAL.

Have you ever watched a movie and become so drawn into it that you started experiencing feelings as though you were really there in the movie?

This is the DEFINITION of a great movie right? It should draw you in.

I remember I first experienced the intensity of this when I was a young boy, watching the movie Titanic for the first time.

I was completely immersed within the action and I remember my mom saying,

“Oh sweetie, you’re sweating! It’s just a movie!”

It was just a movie, but I was really feeling what I was seeing and hearing!

These feelings immediately changed when I went meta to the movie by simply looking away from the TV screen.

Suddenly I remembered that I was not in the movie… I was just watching one.

In that moment, I went meta to the movie, and suddenly my experience changed.

Go Meta To Your Life’s Movie

Now the Titanic example I shared can also relate to your life.

You are also a character in a movie - did you know that?

Your life is a movie and you are constantly watching it.

You can choose to observe it from a first person perspective, and sometimes this can be very rewarding, especially when you are experiencing pure joy, excitement, and fun.

But other times, this experience can be terrifying and frightening…

And these emotions can paralyze us, even during times that we truly do need to MOVE.

We can overcome these more uncomfortable emotions by going meta to them.

How do we do that?

By simply asking yourself very simple questions:

How do I think about what I am feeling?

How do I feel about what I am feeling?

These simple questions take you a notch above the experience.

They detach you from your present experience, and take you to a higher level thought form.

Suddenly, you can look at the experience more objectively.

You can then choose how you want to feel about the experience.

For instance, if I were feeling immense fear I would ask myself:

What do I feel about this immense fear?

And I might answer with something like:

I feel grateful for this immense fear because I am confronting it.

Stepping into a meta-feeling of gratitude changes the experience entirely.

Now suddenly, this immense fear seems entirely tolerable simply because it is now ADDING to my experience, rather than being something that is destroying me.

The meta perspective simply changes the game completely.

Will You Go Meta?

I believe that the future of psychotherapy dwells within the realms of meta-language.

By consciously moving our thoughts and feelings to higher levels of awareness, we can dramatically alter our perception.

Doing this can completely shift our consciousness to the point where it literally changes how we think, feel, and act.

Ultimately, going meta is a choice to take control over your mind and experience.

By doing so, you are taking on a greater level of responsibility in the production of your movie.

Going meta is a choice to go from the ACTOR in your movie, to becoming the DIRECTOR.

For it is the director’s vision that governs the direction of the movie.

And it is this direction in which the movie finds its destiny.

Will you be the director of your life?

Will you choose to go meta?

The choice is yours!

Choose wisely.

Reflection Questions:

How can you go meta to a difficult experience in your life?
Have you ever experienced going meta in a way that was resourceful?
How much would your life change if you chose to go meta more often?

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