When you realize the difference between having to prove yourself and accepting yourself for how you evolve and learn, you will be able to get unstuck from situations or people who consume your energy. Inner wisdom is practicing our immense capacity for compassion, forgiveness and joy, first for ourselves, and then for others. Who do you see when you look in the mirror, underneath it all?
We have been told we live in the knowledge era, where we attribute significance to those who know or are in the know. Many of our education systems reward us for the knowledge we retain, and grade us on how knowledgeable we are.
I always held on to this wisdom from Albert Einstein, “Never memorize something that you can look up.” And it is even more relevant during this time when we have so much access to information online. What this has meant to me is to spend time experiencing life to find the meaning and wisdom behind what we think we may know. We can also read others’ stories in books or participate in their adventures in our daily life. And the deeper question is, what are you here to learn? What is the path to self-knowledge and inner wisdom?
It’s funny that our education systems to date do not provide holistic teachings that integrate knowledge and wisdom, and prepare us to experience life to the fullest. And we are here to learn from everything and everyone. When we don’t achieve inner wisdom, we will face the same lesson over and over during our life time. That is why experiencing life is a true gift. Some days it will feel like we took a crazy turn our path to find a lesson waiting for us to give it the attention it needs so we can release it and continue on. Wisdom is recognizing when to let go.
Understanding our frustrations, and at at the same time, our immense capacity for forgiveness and compassion, are what we have been equipped to learn.
There is a lot of noise in our external world demanding our attention, and we can easily get swept away by the noise on any day of any week. That is easy. The knowledge of it is accessible to all. And yet, the wisdom comes to those who understand they can turn the dial on the noise: up or down. It all changes when we become conscious of how we choose to respond to any given situation we face. And we all fall into the trap of having the volume on really high, and then we learn to dial it down when we gain clarity on our purpose. We no longer need to blame technology or others for how we show up in the world.
What are the big lessons in front of you right now? How are you approaching them?
What are you here to learn? Are there people or situations that keep appearing to teach?
What is the path to self-knowledge and inner wisdom?
