The Space Where Life Finds Meaning

"Every stimulus begins as an event: a sensation, an emotion, a tension, or an impulse. Every stimulus can become a memory. This level is not entirely under our control; it happens to us. The range of experiences we can have varies greatly, from sitting safely by the fireplace at home to wandering around homeless in a foreign culture while fleeing violence and dogma."

"Our mental space begins precisely when we do not fully coincide with this impulse. Frankl refers to the possibility of the observation process, which is the ability to observe consciously what is happening without immediately agreeing with it, suppressing it, or rationalizing it. The Meeting Space Within We can view the mind as the place where perception, a bodily process, and meaning, a mental process, meet."

There is a psychological gap between stimulus and response where conscious choice and growth become possible. Stimuli originate as events—sensations, emotions, tensions, impulses—and can solidify into memories outside full volitional control. Stimuli include bodily reactions, past traumas, evolutionary reflexes, affective resonances, and immediate life experience, and function as informative signals rather than enemies. The observation process allows conscious noticing of impulses without immediate agreement, suppression, or rationalization. The mind functions as a meeting space where bodily perception and mental meaning converge, and consciousness operates as an active, relational openness within that space.

Read at Psychology Today