Do you put more faith in others over yourself, or vice versa?
How do you balance inner vs outer wisdom? Is it 50% – 50%? More in favor of outer, or inner wisdom?
Do you feel as if you’ve gained inner wisdom from your life experiences?
Or are you more externally focused, feeling that others know more than you do?
These are excellent questions to ask on a regular basis
As a life-long spiritual aspirant, and a student of several disciplines (yoga, meditation, Kinesiology, spiritual growth etc), this is a topic I’m very passionate about.
Why? Many people spend their lives obtaining knowledge from outer sources. Seeking qualifications and trainings OR simply viewing others as wiser/smarter/more knowledgeable.
And my question around this is… what do you do with all of that sought-after knowledge?
Ideally, we need to sort through what we’ve learned. Absorb what works for us and discard the rest. This is known as the getting of wisdom!
The idea is that we find a way to integrate our learnings. Make our own meaning and understanding from the learnings on offer and embody them as our own lived experience.
I lurrrrve learning…
I regularly commit to both formal and informal studies to evolve my skill set as a Kinesiologist, educator and facilitator.
In fact, I just completed another round of training with my favorite mentor last weekend. Yay!!
However, I’ve always been fortunate to have teachers and mentors who are interested in empowering their students.
They’ve been kind enough to offer information without ego, celebrating the way I choose work with their offerings in my own unique fashion.
There’s an absolute need for external learning and wisdom
It helps us to grow, expand and understand who we are and what we’re here to do. It’s required to understand how to read, write, and study skills or trades that help us create an income to live our life.
Of course, external learning doesn’t have to mean formal training.
In fact, we can choose to gain understanding from almost any situation we experience.
BUT! Sometimes there’s a disproportionate emphasis placed on outer wisdom
It’s certainly one of my concerns as a practitioner, and it’s something I’m keen for my clients to understand.
Seeing a healer or teacher is about NOT handing over your personal power along with your money.
In our society, we’re often conditioned to believe that if someone is an “expert” in a given area, then their opinion is worth more than other people’s.
For example, we might trust the word of a medical doctor or a lawyer, simply due to their education.
Sometimes this is important, but not in all cases or circumstances and it should never be a carte blanche approach!
Just because someone is an expert in one area, doesn’t make them an expert in everything.
Importantly, what we can fail to recognise is that in trusting others above ourselves, we’re disempowering our intellect, intuition and capacity to know what’s right for ourselves better than anyone else.
Our internal wisdom can be seen as less important
Whether it’s intentional or not, this can mean our inner wisdom remains uncultivated, and considered less valuable.
You might think… Who am I to know anything?
You might feel very uncertain of your own opinion, or find it difficult to make a decision.
Which leaves you open to other people’s beliefs and ideas without a true sense of your own perspective.
A question I often ask my clients is…Do you trust yourself?
Regularly, the answer is… No, I don’t.
You might’ve never learned to trust or rely on your own inner wisdom – and if this behaviour wasn’t modeled to you, that’s understandable.
OR you might’ve assumed that as a result of traumatic experiences, your judgement is NOT to be trusted. Because look what happened when you did!
When you don’t trust yourself, you’re essentially saying whatever you think, it can’t be correct. Other people know more than you.
Of course, it can go the other way too…
What does it look like when you rely ONLY on inner wisdom?
While some people swing towards external wisdom as more valuable, others can become insular.
No one else is trustworthy or knows as much as you do. No one can understand you properly, so you keep our own counsel.
In that case, you may end up feeling superior to others. Isolated and cut off from those around you.
Which is a big mistake!
A part of being human is about gaining a clearer understanding of ourselves. The clearer you become, the smoother life can flow.
If you assume you know more than others, you’re forgetting about your blind spots. And since we don’t have 360 degree vision, we always have blind spots in our perspective.
Which btw, is one of the reasons that as a Kinesiologist, I have my own team of practitioners I work with: Kinesiology, Cranio-sacral Osteo, Yoga, Spiritual Healing.
Because as I like to remind my clients, I sure don’t know everything, thank goodness!
Humility is a great balancer
Put it this way – any time you think you’ve got all the answers one way or another, it’s almost guaranteed that you don’t…
Humility helps us to stay open and curious. It’s always a good idea to ask questions of yourself, and share with other people, too. Sanity checking your assumptions and views can be life-changing.
Wisdom is meant to move and change with us, not remain static and inflexible. So, being open to new possibilities is important. And it’s equally important to be in charge of what it means for you.
Because, you’re the #1 expert in what’s right for you
So don’t give that job to anyone else!
Much love,
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Ambha Amanda Roberts is a Kinesiologist, Intuitive Healer, educator and facilitator based on the Sunshine Coast, Australia. She offers Kinesiology sessions both in-person and via Skype/Zoom all over the world. Ambha Amanda is the co-creator of Adventures of Staria, which includes a series of Staria cards, and an upcoming book for children (including inner children). |
