Habitual Thinking and Inner Wisdom
The mind is loud. We have to slow down to hear the wisdom of the heart – Jeff Foster
When I was reminded that we are innately wise (we all actually know it at some level), I found it helpful to distinguish between my inner wisdom and habitual thinking.
Thinking Wisdom
Judgmental and rigid Curious and flexible
Limited thinking - based on personal Expansive - fresh in the moment,
experience, history and habit creative
Black and white thinking, labels and Knows what it knows and is
scripts completely comfortable with what it
doesn't know
Dramatic - the worst ever, this will be the Calm - I am hurting, I am ok
death of me, what has been done to me
Repetitive - Am I going to be ok? Knows what it knows
Are you sure I am going to be ok? Maybe I Quieter
should check if I'm ok? Chatty
Predictable, sees situations through the lens of Out of the blue, sees situations with
of the past. Gets upset about the same things freshness and
over and over
I can't feel anxiety, anger, or boredom Emotions are always moving, like the
Avoids feelings with habits or constant waves of the ocean
busyness Wisdom knows resistance gives
anything more energy
Fearful, mistrusts, defensive Trusts and understands
Takes things personally Knows that humans experience life
through their personal thoughts
Attempts to control and manipulate Lets life happen
Plays nice, says nice things because it is Kind and connected
what good people do
Also the body is a great GPS of wisdom. My chest, shoulders, and neck get tight when I'm seeing life through my habitual thinking. It's like I put on an armored vest of thinking.
There is nothing wrong with thinking, we need it to function. We innocently and quckly mistake habitual thought for truth.
Determining thinking vs. wisdom helped me begin to use my brain as a tool, rather than reacting to it habitually.
