The True Meaning of Wisdom

By Deepak Chopra, MD

For centuries a quality has existed that is referred to as wisdom. A phrase like “wiser heads prevailed” implies that wisdom can save us from stupid or foolish actions. Elders were once considered wise, and so were philosophers. But once you bring up these references, wisdom feels antiquated and irrelevant. Who are the wiser heads in our day? Aside from a revered figure like the Dalai Lama, it’s hard to name one, and he is really a spiritual figurehead more than the classic wise man.

Whatever wisdom might be, the average person doesn’t think about it very much, if at all, and when you consider the problems that feel the most disturbing—climate change, terrorism, racism, poverty, and international tensions, for example—nobody is clamoring to call on wisdom to solve them.

But maybe only wisdom can. Let me explain what I mean.

Every problem, not just the big global ones but problems in everyday life, get solved by using a mental model. This model explains what has gone wrong, which is the first step in making things right again. Consider a common problem like feeling depressed. In our time we apply a medical model and send the depressed person to get help from a doctor, who will prescribe an antidepressant, or to a psychologist, who will apply some kind of therapy.

In the past, other models would have offered a very different explanation of why someone is depressed. Instead of calling depression a mental disorder or a psychological malady, which leads to trying to understand the person’s brain, depression would have been considered a lack of personal discipline or a moral failing. A depressed person in another model would be considered possessed by evil spirits or punished by God for some hidden sin. It’s strange to think that depression might be treated using everything from bleeding to exorcism, but such is the power of mental models.

Models fool people into believing that they are true. In modern society, the general belief that depression is an illness like catching a cold or contracting cancer feels so certain that few would disagree. But in fact, the disease model is not always workable in depression. The action of popular antidepressants on the brain isn’t certain and may be totally misunderstood. You cannot reliably predict who will get depressed, and quite often depression comes and goes on its own for no reason anyone can explain.

If your model doesn’t predict things correctly, leads to haphazard solutions, and depends on unproven assumptions (in this case, the assumption that depression is a brain problem), it’s not a model that matches reality. In modern life, we rely on a model of reality that has three components or levels.

The first level is data, which we collect and assemble into facts. Facts are supposed to match reality, but thanks to the human gift of rationality we now have so-called “alternative” facts, that are really just stubborn opinions that refuse to be rational.

The second level is information. Information consists of the conclusion that the data reveals. If your blood test comes back with an abnormal blood sugar reading (fact), your doctor might inform you that you are diabetic (conclusion). But in many cases of other disorders doctors and other experts frequently disagree. The same information can often lead to opposite conclusions.

The third level is knowledge, which consists of understanding. You are a knowledgeable doctor if you went to medical school and acquired the knowledge of diseases and how to treat them. Knowledge is the summit of the scientific or rational model. Data gives us the facts; facts assemble into correct information; information, when absorbed as knowledge, allows any problem to be solved, any question to be answered.

And yet knowledge also breaks down; in fact, it breaks down all the time. A good example is diets. There is enough information out there about the failure of diets to show that they don’t work, but the fact that only around 2% of dieters can lose five pounds and keep it off for five years doesn’t inhibit the massive lucrative diet industry. We know all kinds of things where our understanding is futile: carbon emissions warm the planet, women are equal to men, wars have no upside. Gender inequality, global warming, and violent conflicts run amok, not for lack of understanding—after all, the data, facts, information, and knowledge about these problems are irrefutable—but because the current model has failed.

What do people do when their cherished model of reality breaks down? They cling to it even harder and continue to do the same old things that have never worked. Science, the ultimate icon of the rational model, clings to the totally unproven notion that the brain creates the mind, for example, and if you say that this model has lots of problems, a brain scientist will ignore your objections. He clings to his model because it seems good enough, despite its inconsistencies, and his job depends upon it.

Enter wisdom. Wisdom has grown scarce for the simple reason that it follows no model. Socrates made the point, and it got him into a great deal of trouble, that wisdom cannot be taught. You can teach data collection, the amassing of facts, and many branches of knowledge, but wisdom stands apart. True wisdom leads to such things as insight, intuition, depth of experience, self-awareness, and humility before mysteries that will never be fully comprehended.

Because wisdom contradicts the certainty that models try to give us, it has had a hard time in society, as the death of Socrates shows. Society defends its favored and cherished models (which can be mythical, religious, animistic, scientific, and so on) with ferocity; certainty is not to be flouted. Wisdom calls for a totally different way of looking at reality. I will argue in the next post for taking the road back to wisdom. It is the only way to fulfill the infinite potential that human beings possess, and on a global scale, it is the only way we will reach desperately needed solutions.

(To be cont.)

Deepak Chopra MD, FACP, founder of The Chopra Foundation and co-founder of The Chopra Center for Wellbeing, is a world-renowned pioneer in integrative medicine and personal transformation, and is Board Certified in Internal Medicine, Endocrinology and Metabolism.  He is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and a member of the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists. Chopra is the author of more than 85 books translated into over 43 languages, including numerous New York Times bestsellers. His latest books are The Healing Self co-authored with Rudy Tanzi, Ph.D. and Quantum Healing (Revised and Updated): Exploring the Frontiers of Mind/Body Medicine. Choprahost a new podcast Infinite Potential available on iTunes or Spotify  www.deepakchopra.com

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8 Habits That Can Really Change Your Daily Life

You’re reading 8 Habits That Can Really Change Your Daily Life, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’re enjoying this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.

habits that can really change your daily life

Your mind decides your altitude. Jack Canfield, an American author, and entrepreneur has said – Successful individuals do not simply drowse off to the highest. Obtaining there needs targeted action, personal discipline and plenty of energy daily to create things happen. And he could not be a lot of correct.

So, do not let ancient habits hold you back. Begin setting up these easy yet necessary habits for a more joyful and increasingly beneficial life:

1. Say Thanks

Having a constant gratefulness habit has several verified health advantages like high relationships, more noteworthy mental and physical health and higher self-respect.

So whenever you see something that you admire having in your life, keep a silent yourself or perhaps a not speechless when suitable – thanks. Be it a short conversation with an unknown person, a sapid meal, a reliable vehicle, a useful fellow worker, no matter it’s for you – say thanks.

2. Continue to keep a daily journal

Like contemplation, you do not have to be compelled to log multiple journal pages each day to be generative. However, obtaining your unchanged thoughts out on the page habitually notwithstanding for only a couple of minutes or one-page value continues to be extremely helpful.

Journaling clarifies your mind for the day, keeps your brain in innovative mode, enables you to mark out purposes for the day, assists you achieve them and an additional also, it is relaxing.

3. Take exercise regularly

Notwithstanding all the physical advantages of daily exercise, moving your body has numerous psychological and emotional advantages also. Improved confidence, a lot of energy, enhanced brain power, diminished pressure, and better sleep are only some of the mental advantages of having a daily exercise schedule.

If you’ve got access to a gymnasium and utilize it, it’s great. If it is not, don’t be worried. Only ten to a half-hour of moving, yoga, walking or reinforcing with light weights will give all of the equivalent benefits of figuring out at a gymnasium.

4. Hear uplifting music or play a musical instrument

The nature of what you consume without a doubt influences your energy and mindset. Media filled with negativity may adversely influence your temperament and health, yet higher vibration media can make active and do well you.

Attempt starting your day by abstinence from social media and TV. Rather, put on some great music to go with your morning schedule or commute. If you do not get the music you like already, find out positive music or motivational video from online.

On the other hand, you can play any kind of musical instrument. If you have, it’s OK. If you don’t have, you can buy a guitar, ukulele, piano or any other musical instrumen that you like best and play at any time of the day for only 15-30 minutes.

With motivating music or playing a musical instrument in the background, you will find your regular tasks are very enjoyable.

5. Work on Morning Meditation

A meditation practice does not require to be a half-hour in length to be helpful. In fact, 5 minutes of sitting quietly along with your eyes stopped whereas concentrating on your breath, worship, or mantra can diminish pressure and nervousness, decline blood glucose, enhance brain, and promote positive thoughts.

6. Read books

Reading books could be a good way to achieve knowledge and awaken creativity. Plunge reading also promotes focus and contains a calming impact the same as meditation. In addition, reading before sleep will assist you to sleep higher. Non-fiction books, specifically, are a wonderful tool to widen horizon, improve new thoughts, look for inspiration. In addition, they also provide an actionable recommendation on a way to exceed all types of difficult circumstances through true-life examples.

7. Encircle yourself with positive people

Jim Rohn, the American author, and entrepreneur said – “A person is the average of the 5 people he spends the most time with”. This can be exactly why you ought to deliberately think about whom you are expending time with. Let go of friendships that pull you down rather than lifting you up. And expend time with people who understand how to support and share the delight. As happiness is infectious, it is one of the simplest ways to make positivity in your life.

8. Keep positive

It’s anything but difficult to think about how remaining positive can enable to create your life better. Well, consider about it this way – once you are positive, you manage frustrations better and are consequently more possible to conduct pressure in a very healthy manner. This alone is sufficient argument to find out a way to keep positive particularly while everything feels to be falling down.

Remaining positive additionally suppresses your dread of making an attempt out new things. An individual with a positive mood will be more valiant about applying for that activity and since we all know, confidence is essential throughout these interviews.

Positive thinking results in more sound living as people are increasingly worried about what’s beneficial for them and what is not. So, positivity is a more helpful quality than you might imagine.

Some simple habits have the highest influence, therefore don’t be worried about creating life-changing choices overnight. Change is continuous and it occurs through frequent motions that we tend to habits.

You’ve read 8 Habits That Can Really Change Your Daily Life, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’ve enjoyed this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.

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