Psychological signs to Prove You’re Not in Touch With Your Wisdom

Here are 6 ways you could be standing in the way of your own wisdom without even realizing it.

1. You’re quick to judge a book by its cover.

Preconceived notions about the world and all that it encompasses are like locks on the door to personal wisdom. Whether you rely on first impressions, blindly stick by the ideas of others or approach life with a closed mind, you miss some of the most important and beautiful lessons lying just beneath the surface of things.

2. You don’t learn from your failures.

When we feel pain, embarrassment or humiliation from our biggest mistakes in life, the easier response seems to be to shut out the negative feelings altogether and attempt to move beyond them. However, ignoring these failures rather than internalizing them will only lead to them reoccurring in the future, bringing us a similar pain — possibly worse since we had the opportunity to absolve it in the first time.

3. You never take the time to stop and ask “why.”

Ursula M. Staudinger, the director of the Robert. N. Butler Columbia Aging Center at Columbia University and a pioneer in wisdom studies, confirms thatyou cannot achieve personal wisdom without the ability to look beyond yourself. Take in the world on a grander scale and ponder why things are the way they are. You don’t need to be religious, spiritual or scientific — just curious. “What’s necessary is a realization that there is reality beyond the here and now,” said Staudinger.

4. You’re a poor listener.

Just because you hear something doesn’t mean you’re listening. It can be an incredibly hard task that requires quite a lot of concentration, but when you do it, an inner creativity seems to inspire new thoughts and unexpected wisdom within yourself.

5. You ignore your instincts.

A key part of personal wisdom is syncing your actions with your intuition. Whether you are fully aware of it in the moment or not, those “gut feelings” are your existing personal wisdom that link your ability to feel and reason.

 6. You don’t embrace the silence.

A recent study in Science revealed that 67 percent of men and 25 percent of women would rather give themselves electric shocks than sit still in silence and be present with their own thoughts. Ironically our modern culture of constant communication and stimulation makes silence feel incredibly unnatural and uncomfortable when that is prime state in which we can cultivate personal wisdom.