Patterns for Weaving Meaning Into Life

Sense-Making Templates are the overarching patterns we create to make sense of our lives and the world around us. These templates serve as guiding frameworks that simplify decision-making by providing predefined pathways and principles. By establishing major guiding decisions in advance, Sense-Making Templates allow us to navigate the complexities of life with greater ease and clarity. All we need to do is live according to these established patterns, which act as templates for weaving the intricate fabric of our lives.

These templates cut across various domains of human experience, including culture & society, religion & spirituality, empirical sciences, social sciences, philosophies, and worldviews.

In the realm of culture & society, traditions, norms, and rituals shape our behavior and interactions, offering a sense of belonging and continuity.

In religion & spirituality, belief systems and sacred teachings provide moral and ethical guidelines, helping us understand our place in the universe and our relationship with the divine.

Empirical sciences contribute to our sense-making by offering systematic methods for understanding the natural world. Through observation, experimentation, and reasoning, science provides reliable knowledge that informs our daily decisions and long-term plans.

Social sciences, on the other hand, explore human behavior, social structures, and relationships, shedding light on the intricate dynamics that shape our communities and societies.

Philosophies and worldviews offer deeper reflections on the nature of existence, purpose, and meaning. They encourage us to ponder fundamental questions and adopt coherent frameworks that guide our actions and choices.

Nature, arts and the humanities offer us insights into the human experience through our emotions, feelings, and intuition.  Through the lens of these sorts of sense-making templates, we’re able to cultivate a type of appreciation for the world around us and our place within it, which logic alone could never afford. 

Combined, these diverse domains weave a comprehensive tapestry of Sense-Making Templates, enabling us to interpret our experiences, make informed decisions, and live purposeful lives.