Intellect Or Inner Wisdom: How Do You Respond To Your Challenges?

Our Intellect, regardless of how developed it is, seldom taps our powerful inner resources as we face challenges. The power of a confident self image is not an idea. The empowerment of simple self trust does not come from intellectual understanding. The ability to focus accurately does not come from reading a book. Our most useful life skills are developed as our past conditioning meets our challenges and we trust our deepest wisdom. Learning how to develop conscious habits gives you the power to condition the life skills that empower you when you face a struggle you cannot control.
What if you had a choice to respond from intellect or inner wisdom?
We are never a victim when we accept the natural power of the Wisdom of our Body. When old habits don’t serve you, you have the power to change them. As a disabled person, even the most developed habits from my past do not always serve me. For instance, I can no longer practice karate, as I am confined to my wheelchair.
As in karate, you may learn techniques as you develop useful skills, but how gracefully those skills are used is a function of inner wisdom. Beyond the superficial habit is the Wisdom of the Body. I use the word graceful independent from effective. A person can be incredibly effective, but lack the grace to allow their deeper inner wisdom to use those skills in their entire life. It requires a deep surrender to let go of the skills and allow your inner wisdom to adapt to totally different challenges.
For instance a person can learn a sport like karate in their youth. When they surrender, the life skills used in karate emerge as they deal with the challenges of being handicapped. Neither karate techniques nor the karate personality is useful, but the Wisdom of the Body karate develops is precious. This is true of every sport. The same is true with the spiritual art of meditation. The practical art of lowering the metabolism of the body or a meditative personality is useful, but the Wisdom of the Body is essential to adapt to new challenges.
Since our society values the creations of our mind as the expression of personal value, valuable life skills are overlooked and seldom developed. Imagine if qualities like confidence or self trust were developed in school? We would value the reality beyond our thinking mind as much as what we accomplished. How we did things would become as important as what we do. The quality of education and family would be as important as what was accomplished.
Health would be dramatically affected, for simple stress inhibits the immune system and limits medical treatments. That stress could be easily controlled by using The Wisdom of the Body instead of an anxious ego. Obviously, the Wisdom of the Body is not the solution to all of our problems, but this inner wisdom enhances the solutions science creates by the way it is used. This inner wisdom is also responsible for the quality of your life regardless of the challenges you face.
The patient would naturally become an active participant in healing and the Wisdom of the Body would become a resource that improved every medical treatment. In a conscious National Health Plan, we need to help every person accept the Wisdom of their Body because it improves the quality of their life and lowers medical expenses. Ideally, this should begin in childhood because, in the first six years, we develop the foundation of our character. This is the part of us that will participate in the health plan. If a child comes from a dysfunctional family, it will be easier to correct poor habits at an earlier age than at age fifty. This correction may influence that child’s education, reduce teen violence and support stronger families.
When each individual develops the ability to use the Wisdom of the Body effectively, we become useful partners with the professional community. How we interpret our challenges determines the effectiveness of our participation. Remember, we are never victims when we approach our challenges using the Wisdom of our Body.
©Marc Lerner and Life Skills 2009