Reality or Interpretation?

Our mind is excellent at pattern recognition, giving meaning to everything it encounters. Every time we see something, our brain tries to map it on a pattern that it already knows from the past, thus giving meaning to that object or experience.

I noticed this pattern mapping function of my brain while I was walking on the beach and saw funny faces in some of the shells. As you can see in the info-graphic below, my brain even named these funny shell faces. 

(Scroll down to read how this impacts our life ...)

This brain function has been useful for our evolution, helping us learn and remember what's good and bad for us.

However, we have to be aware that the Interpretation given by our pattern-mapping function is not the Reality, but just the meaning that our brain gives to an object or experience. 

In coaching, we often work with this distinction between Interpretation and Reality, in order to rewrite past experiences in a way that can support us in creating the future we want. 

My experience taught me that only a small part  of our experience is Reality (less than 10%), while the rest is just our Interpretation - or, better said, our brain's interpretation, based on its pattern-mapping system. 

What's Reality and what's Interpretation in your life?