Wellness Calendar: Saturday 6 December

The sixth revolution

[internal and external learning pathways; creating insights; expanding our language]

Let’s suppose we now possess the ability and the willingness to continually learn and utilise knowledge coming from within our own bodies, our own internal world. Can we now branch out and grab some of the knowledge that’s external to us, and similarly apply it to our own lives, our own circumstances, so that it becomes both personal and practical wisdom, so that it helps us to create insights about ourselves?

The definition of language centres on being able to communicate something that can then be received and understood by ourselves and by others. We might think of words here, or speech, yet there are other ways to be expressive through symbols, art, diagrams, maps, music, dance, movement, etc., etc.

Consciousness is being aware of what’s going on inside us and outside of us. It’s formed by words and language. The unconscious is the gaps in between these words. We get consciousness through having experiences, interactions and internally talking to ourselves.

Ludwig Wittgenstein said, “The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.” If that were so, then the more language we have at our disposal the greater the chance for us to actively know more of the things that would be extremely useful for us to know. Not only could we learn, we could learn how to learn. We could also re-learn the bits we need to re-learn and unlearn the bits that were unhelpful to us.

The more words we have in our vocabulary, the more words we can begin to understand, as words help to define other words. Once we’ve grasped the idea of enough words, we can start to use these to understand more complex structures, such as ideas, concepts, theories and models. Once we can do this, we can understand even more complex notions – not for the sake of being clever, or for pleasing others, but for self-knowledge, for the study of ourselves, for the sake of our well-being.

Take this as an example. We know we enjoy music. We know a little bit about how different sounds have an ability to affect our body, affect our mood. We start to experiment with playing different types of songs, from a variety of musicians around the world. We figure out that we like the sound of an oboe, but not an operatic voice. We read books on music. We discover the idea of sympathetic vibrations, classifications such as monophonic, polyphonic, heterophonic and polyrhythms, the concept of Kate Hevnor’s mood wheel. We use all of this knowledge to heighten our pleasure of music and enhance our wellness. And we do this through the existing knowledge of ourselves and our grasp of language.

This is our sixth revolution using internal and external knowledge to gain a deep understand of something – otherwise known as an insight.

The more we know, the more we can understand; the more we can understand, the more we know. It’s a process that keeps on giving; a cycle made for wellness and fuelled by a desire to be well.

Yet it might be worth considering that insights don’t come solely from knowledge. They also come from living our life, from our interactions with people, from ourselves. We can have a eureka! moment anytime, anyplace, anywhere – so long as we’re open to receiving it.

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