Responding with intelligence to the Coronavirus challenge

We explore how the enquiring mind can respond with wisdom to the challenge posed by Coronavirus and the anxiety it causes. Here are 6 tips to consider. We live in extraordinary times. How can an enquiring mind respond to this challenge with intelligence? Every challenge we face also presents us with an opportunity to understand ourselves and how our mind works. We can do this by observing our reactions and exploring what lies behind them. This awakens in us an inner intelligence and also allows us to deal with the challenge we face, much more effectively. People are frightened. The more we read, the more frightened we become. We start having dark thoughts about the future, about our livelihood, our own health and our loved ones. We worry about falling ill or even dying from the disease. We have become anxious. Perhaps it is worth exploring the nature of fear, and how we can respond to it with intelligence. # crisis management 

 https://blogs.humanwisdom.me/ Today it’s the coronavirus, tomorrow it may be something else and what we learn can be useful in dealing with other fears. When we look at ourselves and how our mind deals with this problem, we realise that we struggle to live with uncertainty, with not knowing what will happen. That uncertainty creates a space for our imagination to fill, and we know the human mind usually looks at a situation and thinks of the worst possible outcome. How can we deal with this uncertainty? Perhaps acceptance is the key, hard as it may be. Can we live with not knowing what may happen and make our peace with that? There are so many questions that have no answers, like not knowing if we will get infected with the coronavirus, if there is life on other planets, and so on. If we can accept uncertainty, and be comfortable with not knowing, we can avoid the anxieties caused by the many wild imaginings of our thinking. Often, when we are worried about something, we keep churning it over in our thinking, like a dog with a bone. Each time we swirl it around, we think of a new angle to worry about. ‘Forget coronavirus, what if I have a heart attack or stroke, will there be enough intensive care beds, for example?’ These are the kind of thoughts that can keep us awake at night and the less sleep we get, the less able we are to deal with the challenges of the day. # crisis management All our worries are rooted in the future. If we actually look at our lives right now, it may be okay. We can step outside. We have the chance to look at the flowers and the sun that remains in the sky. Reminding ourselves of such beauty can bring us back to the moment and the life that is for living, right now. There may of course be real challenges to deal with – we could have lost a job, or be caring for a loved one who is ill, or fallen ill ourselves. To face these challenges, we will need all our energy and wisdom. And if we can be completely in the present, we can do that much more effectively. Problems generated by our fears on the other hand have no solution because they have not yet occurred, so our worries never go away and wear us down. We will see that fear makes us think and behave irrationally. We are not aware that we are doing so. If we are challenged, we will find many arguments to justify our behaviour. Before we know it, we are in a panic and stockpiling items from the supermarket, even though everyone is saying it is not necessary, and that it leaves little for others in real need. When we look honestly at ourselves, we can learn that fear makes us even more self-centered than normal, and we can lose all consideration and compassion for people outside our immediate circle. But these are the kind of things we would never admit, even to ourselves. Having understood all this about fear, how can we respond to the current challenge with intelligence? To find our more visit humanwisdom.me  # crisis management  .The first step is to realise that we are worried and anxious. That may not always be obvious and it may just be expressed in our behaviour. We may want to talk about this all the time with others, or buy things we know we do not need, or keep surfing the internet churning over the news. We may notice that our bodies are tense, that we are on edge or that our heartbeat is faster. # crisis management The second step is to accept it and not label this fear as good or bad, or justify it as necessary. The crucial third step, which awakens an inner intelligence, is to ask what lies behind that feeling of anxiety, and what we can learn about ourselves from exploring it. Here are 6 ideas to consider from our own enquiry: #1 Write down all your fears and ask yourself how likely they are to happen. Then, divide them into 3 groups. The first group lists all the fears which are just a product of your imagination – that the world as we know it is going to end, we are going to run out of medicines and food, for example. In the second group are fears that are real but which you can do nothing about and just have to accept. Accepting for example, that despite our best efforts, we may get infected, and it is more than likely we will be fine if that happens. The third group are fears that we can do something about, for example getting stuck when we travel somewhere, so we don’t travel. Or that we may pick up a bug from the places we are visiting, so it seems sensible to cancel those engagements. #2 Realise that all fears are in the future, and actually in the present moment we are fine. Go for a walk outside. Write down all the things you have to be grateful for. Make it a long list and feel the beauty and joy of being alive. #3 When you look back at your life and see that very few of your fears have actually come to pass, it can help you realize that this one will also pass. Everything passes in the end. So much energy is wasted in worrying about things that never happen. #4 Realise that the constant thinking and reading and talking about the problem is just filling your mind with more fear and anxiety. When you stop this, you can get on with your life based on the best advice available and keep up with the news once a day. #5 Observe how your fear is making you behave irrationally. There is no need to be critical of yourself for that, but observe that and ask yourself, is that intelligent? That question can lead you to change course and do the intelligent thing, whatever it may be. An example can even be resisting the temptation to stockpile items from the supermarket and have much more consideration for others. #6 This one may seem like a very strange idea initially let us explore it, please: Can we meet stress and anxiety without thinking? A lot of our fears are based on thinking, and while that is essential, the constant thinking about things is generating anxiety and worry and can leave you worn out. On a simple walk, the act of looking at flowers with complete attention can cause the fears to temporarily dissolve. When paying complete attention to the flowers, one isn’t thinking. If we can meet our fears in the same way, with complete attention and without thinking, they dissolve too.When a fear arises in you, pay attention to it, and don’t start about it.  # crisis management  Tune into your breathing, and let the fear continue to rise in you. Accept it completely, but don’t react to it at all. Observe it. Don’t even name it as a fear. Just stay with it. Notice how your mind goes quiet when you pay complete attention to anything. If you can do that to your fear as it rises in you, it dissolves. Try it and see. Please don’t accept anything we say without checking for yourself if it is true. After all, we all share the same mind, and the nature of fear is the same in all human beings, whether we are afraid of losing our jobs, falling ill with the coronavirus, or life after death. Stay well, and look after yourself. This too will pass.

 # crisis management

The engine of disorder

“When I discover who I am, I’ll be free” – Ralph Ellison # Chaos Theory

How do human beings respond when we get psychologically upset? We start by labelling the feeling as anger, stress, anxiety, depression or something similar. Different events can cause this, and though the details may differ, they are broadly similar in all human beings. 

  We may lose something we were attached to – a favourite pet, a person or a job. We may not get something we want – we may fail an exam, not get a job, or fail to achieve a goal at work. 

# Chaos Theory  https://blogs.humanwisdom.me/ We may be criticised for something we have done, compare ourselves with others who have done better than us, feel our needs are not met in a relationship, or feel lonely — all these hurt.

There are many other reasons why we get stressed and upset. How do we respond?
We immediately seek solutions in the world around us. We may start by blaming a person or our circumstances for how we are feeling. Feeling like a victim brings a subtle form of pleasure and gives us a reason not to accept responsibility for how we are feeling.
If the distress continues, we may seek refuge in one of the friendly escapes that make us feel good in the short term. We may escape through amusement: go shopping, go on holiday, start a new relationship – anything that distracts us from our pain. We may take to alcohol or drugs, which again offers an escape from our pain.
Or we may try some of the well-tested stress-reducing techniques – Yoga, Mindfulness, Counselling, Tai Chi, Meditation, or start some medication. All these provide some relief and make us feel better.
But they all have one thing in common – dealing with the internal disorder’s symptoms but not the root cause. The engine of disorder continues to generate our psychological pain.
Self-awareness is the first step to enlightening wisdom. Watch this short video to explore awareness: 
Exploring Awareness
The only long-term solution is understanding the problem’s origins in our thinking. Most of us are unaware of its existence or how to explore and understand it. HumanWisdom offers a road map to explore our inner space and the origins of our distress. This understanding results in a long-term solution to these problems. If the roots of our anxiety are understood, then we no longer have to try not to be anxious. If we realise that our hidden version of ourselves causes us to be hurt when criticised, we can let go of them. If we understand that our conditioning pushes us to react to life in unhelpful patterns of behaviour, we can live with intelligence. Hence, it no longer operates from behind the screen of our awareness. If we see that our hidden psychological needs are behind much of our pain and disappointment in a relationship, we may try and understand where they come from. # Chaos Theory
By turning our understanding inwards, and knowing ourselves & how our minds work, the engine of the disorder can be switched off, and we can live with a sense of inner peace.
The beauty of this approach is that all it needs is to understand ourselves deeply, which empowers us to take responsibility for and solve our problems. Take the first step, and find out for yourself. To find out more, visit humanwisdom.me # Chaos Theory

The Human Wisdom Project

When we see the problems in our own lives and those in the world, they seem too complex, and we feel helpless and do not know how to begin to address them. Every great human endeavour, even going to the moon, started as an idea. Today, we write about a project that may improve not only our own lives, but the world we all live in.  # Life Lessons The Human Wisdom Project is based on the fact that hidden from our awareness, the human mind functions in the same way in all of us, and is responsible for the world we have created, including all the problems in our own lives like loneliness, stress, sorrow, anxiety, and conflict. It is also responsible for creating all the problems we see in the world like wars, corruption, poverty, drug addiction and climate change. By studying and understanding how our minds function, we can begin to address these problems and there is the possibility of deep change.  https://blogs.humanwisdom.me/ The aim of the project is to encourage all human beings to begin their own journeys of self-understanding and to bring this study of our inner spaces to schools, colleges and universities around the world. The other aim of the project is to explore, together, whether it is possible for human beings to change deeply. This website has a number of resources which allow people to come together to explore what it means to be human, and share what they learn. The book Understanding Me, Understanding You is part of this project and has been written to make it easy for everyone to begin their own journey of self-enquiry. You can contribute to the project by beginning your own journey of enquiry and sharing what you learn with us all. Just as many computers have different contents in their hard drives, but share the same operating system, so we humans have different contents in our memories which we think makes us unique, but in the background, our minds function in the same way. #empowerment  Though the cause of fear in your life and mine may be different, the underlying feeling of fear, the mechanism behind it and the way it affects our lives is the same, so we can explore it together.  # Life Lessons Similarly the mechanism behind loneliness, sorrow and anxiety will be the same for all of us. By enquiring into the way our minds function, by asking questions and through self-awareness, we can begin to address these problems we all face. Understanding ourselves helps us to understand others, which leads to more harmonious relationships. This also leads to wisdom, intelligence, compassion and a sense of inner peace. We human beings are astonishingly capable when we come together to tackle a problem. We have eradicated so many diseases, cracked the genetic code, created the internet and can feed 7 billion people on this planet. We are now trying to tackle climate change.     # Life Lessons Yet, when it comes to our inner spaces, we just assume that the problems we see there like stress, loneliness, conflict and sorrow do not have a solution. We have assumed that we can never change. Why is that? In the last century alone 200 million human beings were killed by other human beings. The same consciousness, the same mind that led to those killings, is also alive in you and me today and given the right circumstances we are all capable of that violence. If we want our children to live in a peaceful world we have to investigate that shared consciousness and find out if it is possible to change. Each of us can be a scientist and investigate the way our minds work, ask questions and share what we find with each other. If in investigating jealousy for example, you had an insight that completely ended it in you, that would help all human beings. We can then begin to ask questions like ‘Is it possible to live without conflict in a relationship’, or ‘Can loneliness be dissolved’, or ‘How can we find love in our lives’ or ‘Is it possible to live a life based on intelligence, and not just one influenced by our past’? Please do not think only clever people can do this or that some expert is going to solve the problem. Each of us is equally capable of this understanding. Please join us on this journey. To find out more please visit humanwisdom.me. 

    # Life Lessons

Understanding others is easier if we understand ourselves

Of all the skills we need to be happy and successful in life, getting on with others has to be among the most important. # Emotional Intelligence  In order to get on with other people we need to understand them, and the best way to understand others is to understand ourselves, because as we will explore, beyond the screen of our awareness, the human mind functions in the same way in everyone. Physically we think we are unique because we look different but scientists say that 99.9% of our DNA is the same, so biologically we are very similar. Psychologically we feel we are even more unique.  

# Emotional Intelligence   https://blogs.humanwisdom.me/  We may speak different languages, come from different cultures or countries, and have had different experiences. These are the contents of our memory. We identify ourselves with this content, which is unique, and this creates the sense of us being separate individuals. Behind the scenes however, despite our apparent differences, our minds function in the same way. Take the example of a couple who are arguing about what they should spend their money on. She may want a new phone and he may want to go on holiday. Each is attached to their own desire which creates conflict. If they explored that more deeply, they would realise that the feeling of desire is the same in both of them. It is linked to an anticipation of pleasure and as soon as the desire is fulfilled, the pleasure ends and they would feel empty again. If they understood that the nature of desire in both of them is the same, their conflict would end immediately. The other reason that their discussion can get quite heated is that each is attached to their view.  # Emotional Intelligence They do not understand the mechanism behind this and so there is conflict. Without realising it, we become attached to the content of our memory, because it becomes part of our identity. We then want to defend our opinions and beliefs and invent increasingly clever arguments why our view is correct. Any assertion of our identity brings us pleasure, because it strengthens the ‘me’. If both people understood the mechanism behind how our opinions are formed and how we get attached to them, the arguments would end. In this way, if we explored any feeling we would realise that the mechanism behind it is the same in all of us. We are all shaped by our past experiences, we all want to be happy and we all get hurt. In the background, our minds function in similar ways – just as computers run the same operating system even though they have different contents stored in their memory. This ‘operating system’ is the same in all human beings.  # Emotional Intelligence If we can understand this fact, it can be life changing and has been for many people across the world. We might feel less alone. Realising that our minds function in the same way as in others may allow us to accept ourselves as we are and that may bring a sense of peace. It may allow us to understand and accept others, though they may look different and have different opinions from us, and that may lead to compassion and harmony in our relationships. It would also allow human beings to come together and explore whether it is possible for us to change deeply, and live with less conflict in our lives, which would make the world a more peaceful place. We owe it to future generations to find out. This understanding is not complex, and is open to anyone who is willing to look within, accept what they see and question themselves. The book Understanding Me Understanding You and HumanWisdom enables everyone to understand themselves and how their minds work. To find our more visit humanwisdom.me. # Emotional Intelligence

Why are we critical of others?

“Criticism is the disapproval of people, not for having faults, but having faults different from your own” – Anon. # empathy
Let us start with an example. If you come across someone smoking, you are much more likely to be critical of them if you are a non-smoker than if you smoke.

Why is that?
Perhaps it is because our mind compares everything we see and hears with what it knows. If we encounter something different, it creates a disturbance and a sense of irritation or anger. This is because we are attached to our point of view without realising it, and anything different feels wrong. We respond to this disturbance by being critical of the other person.
Being critical is another way of saying I am right and you are wrong, strengthening our sense of self and bringing a burst of satisfaction. These two mechanisms are automatic and work in the background, behind the screen of our awareness. This is why being critical of others can become an unconscious habit. https://blogs.humanwisdom.me/
To understand why we are critical of others, watch this short video:
The role of conditioning
Unfortunately, this can result in conflict because no one likes being criticised, especially if our irritation or anger is evident in our tone. If we do it repeatedly, it can damage a person’s self-esteem. It can also diminish us because we become closed to different ways of seeing and doing things.
Criticism is neither good nor bad and sometimes entirely necessary. If we can, however, understand the mechanism behind it, we can respond with intelligence rather than automatically. We may still say something critical, but in a way that does not convey our irritation or anger and trigger a defensive response. We may also just pause and ask if we need to say anything and accept other points of view as equally valid.
To learn more about criticism and ways to cope with it, download the HumanWisdom app or visit       humanwisdom.me  # empathy

Why are we critical of ourselves

In this blog, we will explore the question of ‘Why are we critical of ourselves?’. Some degree of self-criticism is healthy, but for many people it can be a cause of deep unhappiness and low self-esteem. Sometimes it can manifest as an eating disorder, or as chronic anxiety. It makes us more sensitive to criticism from others as well as making us more critical of other people.                      https://blogs.humanwisdom.me/ Our pain demands our attention so we can become self-absorbed, and lose our sensitivity to the people in our lives. It can also distort our ability to think clearly and become a habit which we can’t seem to change. So what is behind this feeling? At its core is the difference between who we are, and who we would like to be, which we can call our images of ourselves. We are this and want to be that, which we think will make us happy. # self-compassion The difference between our images and our reality is what causes our pain. I may be overweight and want to be thin, or thin and want to look more muscular, or be more loved, or more important, or be better at something, and so on. This process goes on automatically and we are blind to it. We do not realise that we have accumulated all these images from our environment, and this has happened without our consent. For example, we may not see the link between reading a fashion magazine and thinking we need to lose weight. So what can we do? We could start by observing our images and the hidden way they act in our lives. We may then realise that our problem lies not in who we are but in our images of who we want to be, and just let them go. This understanding would allow us to just accept ourselves, which would bring so much peace to our lives. To find our more visit humanwisdom.me

 # self-compassion

Why are we educated

The world of knowledge has changed so dramatically in the last 25 years. Now we can have all the knowledge we need at the click of a button. So much information that was once difficult to access, is available to everyone who has an internet connection. https://blogs.humanwisdom.me/ # education  For the older generation, owning an encyclopaedia was the ultimate source of knowledge while growing up, and really expensive. Now it’s free. In fact, the problem is the opposite- too much information, and not knowing how to make sense of it. But our education system has not changed. It is still largely rooted in sharing and memorising information, and we are examined on this very narrow ability of the brain. Why is it still important to memorise all this information, when it’s all available at the click of a button? It is still designed to help us get a job, and prepare us for the companies that are looking for workers. We think that earning a living is the most important thing in life. There is one other way in which our education system has not changed. It is still focused on teaching us about the world around us, but not at all about ourselves. We know much more about mathematics and science than about loneliness, fear or the art of happy relationships. Why is that? At HumanWisdom we believe that learning about ourselves is perhaps more important now than ever before, because that allows us to live with joy, and a sense of peace, and be excellent human beings, successful on the inside, and in the world. education Inspiring Growth: Understanding the Significance of Motive Description in Education Empowering Through Education: Unveiling the Significance of Knowledge and Exploring the Depths of Related Content for Lifelong Growth and Success.See humanwisdom.me. # education 

Why do we feel hurt?

Why do we feel hurt? In this blog, we’d like to explore the question of why human beings feel hurt and the many benefits that enquiry could bring. This feeling of being hurt is not unique to any one person but the same in all human beings, so we can explore this together, just by looking at ourselves clearly. #healing That understanding itself can bring change. So what are the common ways we get hurt? We get hurt when our expectations are not met.  We may expect a friend to call us on our birthday, and when they don’t we feel bad. # healing We also have many psychological needs, which we are not aware of and expect others to fulfil. We want to be loved and respected, feel important, be listened to and understood and so on. If these needs are not met, we can feel hurt. We also get hurt when we are criticized. # healing https://blogs.humanwisdom.me/  If someone is a surgeon and you are critical of their surgical skills, they would feel hurt. If on the other hand you say they are a useless cook, they would probably laugh and agree with you. The difference is that they have an opinion or image of themselves as a good surgeon, but don’t regard themselves as a good cook. # healing We have many such images of ourselves, which we are not aware of, and when they are challenged, we get hurt. We can get hurt when an opinion or belief we are attached to is challenged- if someone says something bad about our religion for example. So, how do we respond when we get hurt? We usually blame the other person for hurting us, even though the expectation or image or strong opinion that caused the hurt in the first place was created by our own thinking. We may react by withdrawing our affection and not speaking to the other person, who may not know we have been hurt, and not understand why. Sometimes our hurt leads us to get angry, and that can lead to violence and we can see the effects of that in the world. There are many benefits of understanding this process more deeply. # healing It may make us take responsibility for the feeling and not blame others for hurting us, because the ultimate cause of being hurt lies in us, in our reaction to what has happened. # healing This may push us to understand the whole process by which our images, expectations, opinions and psychological needs are created and see the link between them and getting hurt. As a result of this understanding we may not react in the usual way by withdrawing our affection or with anger or violence and that may help not only bring harmony to our relationships- but also bring peace to a troubled world. To find out more visit humanwisdom.me. #healing

Unveiling the Impact of Climate Change: Exploring Global Warming, Environmental Sustainability, and Renewable Solutions

Title: Using our wisdom to tackle climate change – by understanding the mind where the problem begins
In this blog, we’d like to explore a new way of addressing the problem of climate change – by understanding the way our shared human mind functions. Scientists say it is the greatest threat facing humanity and despite the efforts of many governments, the problem is getting worse. How can we respond?
We know that rising greenhouse gas levels, which are responsible for global warming, are caused by increasing human consumption and a rising population.


The three factors which are driving this rising consumption – are our need for pleasure which comes from buying things we may not need, our fear which makes us want more and more, and our conditioning influences which make us want what others have because we think that will make us happy. https://blogs.humanwisdom.me/
Buying things that we don’t need and having new experiences bring us pleasure. We identify ourselves with our experiences and our possessions, and that strengthens the sense of self or the I, which makes us feel good. We seek gratification through pleasure, but this feeling of excitement from buying something or having a new experience, quickly fades away until there is a need for it to be replaced by new ones, and that leads to increased consumption.
So, why do we have this constant craving for pleasure? Perhaps it is because deep inside we have this sense of restlessness or emptiness, which we are not aware of, and the stimulation that pleasure brings covers up that feeling of the void, if only for a short period of time.
Explore this video that allows us to understand how wisdom can help tackle climate change:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2zcg6wLK1c
We are not satisfied with how much we have, and always want more. We want to accumulate wealth, not only because it brings us pleasure, but because we fear the future, which is often operating in the background. Exploring and understanding our sense of emptiness and our fear of the future can bring a natural stillness and sense of peace within, and with that, the need for pleasure also recedes.
The origin of the climate crisis, therefore, lies in the way our minds operate – in our need for pleasure and new experiences and our fear of the future, all of which lead to overconsumption. If we are able to tackle this problem in the long term, this is where we must direct our energy.
We can do this through education, where young people could be taught not only about the world around them but also about themselves. If we can do this, we could address this problem in a generation. Let us not say it cannot be done without even trying. It’s not as hard as it seems. Future generations are counting on us.
As Nelson Mandela said ‘It always seems impossible until it is done.’
To find out more about how wisdom can help you, and how it can address the problem of climate change, download the HumanWisdom app or visit humanwisdom.me.

Obstacles to self-understanding

“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.” – Aristotle # personal development
There are many benefits of inquiry and learning about yourself. These include living with a sense of peace and contentment from within and having happier relationships. There are however many obstacles that can get in the way of this journey of learning about ourselves, and in this article, we are going to explore some of them.


As we look within, our image of ourselves may be challenged. We may realize that we are not as loving and kind as we thought we were and that may challenge the image we have created of ourselves as kind and loving people. Or we may think we are good listeners, when in fact we are not. This creates a conflict in our minds and may push us to stop exploring further. It is important to keep going because it is only in understanding and accepting ourselves as we are that we can change if we need to, and find peace within. # personal development
Our fear of change can block our inquiry. As we look at ourselves we may realize that there are aspects of our lives that need to change, like our jobs, our relationships, and our addiction to shopping, or the phone. The possibility of change may however make us feel insecure and anxious, and that blocks any further exploration of our own personality. It is important, however, to explore our fear and keep going, because the understanding that flows from this brings its own insight, and change follows without effort. https://blogs.humanwisdom.me/
Watch this short video to understand how wisdom can help you with your self-discovery:
Video – https://humanwisdom.me/course/adults/benefits-of-enquiry/s26011
Understanding ourselves feels unfamiliar – something we have never done. While exploring the cause of fear, we may say ‘But it’s only human to be afraid’ and give up without even taking the first step. When it comes to problems in the outside world, we humans are so good at solving them – look at the advances in medicine for example. Why do we assume, without trying, that our internal problems like fear and sorrow have no solution? Surely, we are very capable and do much better than that.
We may be keen and have read many books on self-inquiry and know it all, but get frustrated because, despite all that knowledge, we find that there is no real change. The difficulty here perhaps is that we may be repeating what others have said, and not have taken the effort to look at ourselves deeply. It is only in looking at ourselves as we are that real understanding and change come.
Being aware of these pitfalls in our journey of self-inquiry may help us to avoid them and keep going. It leads to wisdom, compassion, and goodness and is a lifelong journey.
To find out more download the HumanWisdom app, or visit humanwisdom. me. 

# personal development