It is in our nature to interpret events…

• We not only interpret the character of events… we may also interpret our interpretations. Kenneth Burke
• Your ego is an avid interpreter. It is so quick to interpret events as ‘bad’ or ‘good,’ ‘wrong’ or ‘right.’ It never fails to see ‘the little picture. Robert Holden
• We tell ourselves stories in order to live. … We interpret what we see … We live entirely … by the imposition of a narrative line upon disparate images, by the “ideas” with which we have learned to freeze the shifting phantasmagoria which is our actual experience. Joan Didion.

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…based on our beliefs and past experiences

• Meanings come not from events themselves, but from what we bring to them. Lucy Calkins
• Seeing is never believing: we interpret what we see in the light of what we believe. Oswald Chambers
• The notion that any one person can describe ‘what really happened’ is an absurdity. If ten – or a hundred – people witness an event, there will be ten – or a hundred – different versions of what took place. What we see and how we interpret it depends entirely upon our individual past experience. David Eddings

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The way we interpret events determines our happiness and unhappiness

• It’s not the events that shape my life that determine how I feel and act, but, rather, it’s the way I interpret and evaluate my life experiences. Tony Robbins
• Happiness is not something that happens … It does not depend on outside events, but, rather, on how we interpret them. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
• Man is troubled not by events, but by the meaning he gives them. Epictetus
• Feelings, by themselves, do not create problems. It is rather the tendency to interpret and analyze them. When out of habit you believe those interpretations, it is there that the suffering begins. Mooji
• All of us live at the feeling level, and our feelings are in large part a result of the way we perceive things. You observe or are told something, you interpret it, and only then do you have a reaction at the feeling level. The point is that feeling is preceded by perception, and all of us are capable of controlling our interpretation [the associations and assumptions] of what we see. If we can control our interpretation, then it logically follows that we can exercise some control over our feelings as well. Michael LeBoeuf
• It doesn’t hurt me unless I interpret its happening as harmful to me. I can choose not to. Marcus Aurelius
• The mind is malleable. Our life can be greatly transformed by even a minimal change in how we manage our thoughts and perceive and interpret the world. Happiness is a skill. It requires effort and time. Matthieu Ricard
• I think the difference between finding happiness, or moments of happiness, is how you choose to interpret things. That’s a rather shocking responsibility. That we’re responsible for our own happiness. It’s not those around us. Natascha McElhone
• What I “discovered” was that happiness is not something that happens. It is not the result of good fortune or random chance. It is not something that money can buy or power command. It does not depend on outside events, but, rather, on how we interpret them. Happiness, in fact, is a condition that must be prepared for, cultivated, and defended privately by each person. People who learn to control inner experience will be able to determine the quality of their lives, which is as close as any of us can come to being happy. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
• What really frightens and dismays us is not external events themselves, but the way in which we think about them. It is not things that disturb us, but our interpretation of their significance. Epictetus
• I am more and more convinced that our happiness or unhappiness depends far more on the way we meet the events of life, than on the nature of those events themselves. Alexander Von Humboldt
• Happiness does not depend on outward things, but on the way we see them. Leo Tolstoy
• The happiness of this life depends less on what befalls you than the way in which you take it. Elbert Hubbard
• The primary cause of unhappiness is never the situation but your thoughts about it. Eckhart Tolle
• The happiness you are seeking is not to be found in the flow of life, but in your attitude toward whatever life brings. Ramesh S. Balsekar
• Suffering doesn’t come from the fact; it comes from the meaning we assign to the fact. Tony Robbins
• Make a game of finding something positive in every situation. Ninety-five percent of your emotions are determined by how you interpret events to yourself. Brian Tracy
• It makes little difference what is actually happening, it’s how you, personally, take it that really counts! Denis Waitley
• What’s happening is merely what’s happening. How you feel about it is another matter. Neale Donald Walsch

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The way we interpret events determines our level of anxiety and stress

• Although many situations and encounters can be distressing or anxiety- producing, it is important to reemphasize that the way we interpret these events or situations is the crux of the problem. What we tell ourselves about the event, about ourselves, and about the other person or people involved is far more crucial in determining our feelings and our state of mind than the event itself. Robert W. Firestone
• How we perceive a situation and how we react to it is the basis of our stress. If you focus on the negative in any situation, you can expect high stress levels. However, if you try and see the good in the situation, your stress levels will greatly diminish. Catherine Pulsifer
• We can be sure that the greatest hope for maintaining equilibrium in the face of any situation rests within ourselves. Francis J. Braceland

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The way we interpret events shapes us

• You see, it’s never the environment; it’s never the events of our lives, but the meaning we attach to the events – how we interpret them – that shapes who we are today and who we’ll become tomorrow. Tony Robbins

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The way we interpret events determines our actions

• We are the only beings on the planet who lead such rich internal lives that it’s not the events that matter most to us, but rather, it’s how we interpret those events that will determine how we think about ourselves and how we will act in the future. Tony Robbins

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The way we interpret events determines the meaning we attach to them

• It’s not the events of our lives that shape us, but our beliefs as to what those events mean. Tony Robbins
• People make events into stories. Stories give events meaning. Scarlett Thomas

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The quality of our lives depends on how we interpret events

• The quality of your life is determined by how you feel at any given moment. How you feel is determined by how you interpret what is happening around you, not by the the events themselves.  Brian Tracy

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Our interpretations become our reality

• Be careful how you interpret the world: It is like that. Erich Heller

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Irrespective of our interpretations, we cannot know if any event is good or bad

• When anything happens, we interpret it as good or bad, but we do not know what is really good or bad fortune. Only the future can decide. For example, what appears to be bad today may in fact lead us to a greater good tomorrow and by the very act of thinking and planning in that positive way, we can help make that good future come true. Jean-Jacques Rousseau

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Choose to interpret events in a positive and constructive way

• In Re-framing, you interpret the event in a positive way. You change your language . Instead if defining it as a problem you re-frame it as a situation . A problem is something that is upsetting and stressful. A situation is something that you simply deal with. Brian Tracy
• Make a game of finding something positive in every situation. Ninety-five percent of your emotions are determined by how you interpret events to yourself. Brian Tracy
• Seek not to change the world, but choose to change your mind about the world. What you see reflects your thinking. And your thinking but reflects your choice of what you want to see. A Course in Miracles