‘Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom’ Aristotle
Wisdom is not an easy word to define. Perhaps it includes the ability to understand yourself and others clearly, manage your emotions, make good decisions, have happy relationships, and be at peace with yourself. It is not a fixed state to achieve, but like a river, always flowing. A natural by-product of living with wisdom is compassion. Wisdom teaches self awareness for your personal growth.

Some people think wisdom comes with age, and the older one gets, and the more experiences one accumulates, the wiser one becomes – but that is not always true. Here is why. https://blogs.humanwisdom.me/
When accumulated knowledge is applied to things we do in the world, then experience can help us make better decisions. If I am a doctor, after 30 years of practice I develop a sixth sense, an intuition, which helps me diagnose problems earlier. If I am a firefighter, after 30 years I know how to deal with complex fires, which a younger fireman may not. We confuse this ability to make decisions based on accumulated knowledge, with wisdom, which comes instead from an inner knowing.# self awareness
There are many people who are successful and great at their jobs, but who live without a sense of joy, with sorrows accumulated from their disappointments, with strong prejudices against those who are different, and with anger at those they perceive have hurt them. They make decisions based on their fear, self-interest, and from their unconscious conditioning influences. Many of their relationships are unhappy. They are poor listeners, and have forgotten how to love others. They may have accumulated wealth and fame, but are not at peace with themselves. They need more and more to distract themselves from their own inner sadness and emptiness, which never goes away.
Consider this example. It is an amalgam of several true stories.
Prem was a highly accomplished lawyer who emigrated to the UK 25 years ago. He is successful, well regarded, and on the boards of several companies. He has worked hard to get to where he is, so pushes his only son to do the same. He wants him to be a lawyer like him and take over his practice. He is constantly critical of his son for not studying hard enough, or watching too much TV, or being on his phone, or waking up late. They have many arguments and their relationship gets strained. After much persuasion the son agrees to study law at university, just to please his father, even though he hates the subject. After 2 years he feels desperately unhappy, abandons his degree and comes home. His father is angry and tells him that he has wasted all the money spent on his degree, that he is ungrateful, and will come to nothing in the future. Distraught, the son walks out, and takes to drugs to ease his pain. Prem is heart-broken, and wonders what he did wrong – he just wanted the best for his son.
How could Prem have acted differently, with wisdom? Perhaps he could have understood that it was his unconscious fears and his own conditioning that was behind his desire for his son to become a lawyer. Bullying others into submission, under the guise of loving them is easily done, if one is not aware one is doing so. He did not understand the power of constant criticism to hurt others and the depth of the pain inflicted. Prem had always done what his father had told him, and he expected his son to do the same. If he lived with wisdom he would have understood that loving someone means accepting them completely as they are, and respecting their opinions and choices.
As this story illustrates, wisdom does not always come with age or experience. Instead, it comes from a deeper understanding of ourselves and how our minds work. It comes from being curious about why we think and feel and act in the way we do. It comes from being able to question our assumptions and narratives which we naturally become attached to.
Have you come across a version of this story in your life? # self awareness

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