It’s common for my clients to want to understand what is going on with them. They have a problem and they want a solution. Often they understand the situation, they understand how they got to this place and they understand what they should be doing and what should work, but they can’t or it doesn’t. There seems to be a piece missing or something broken and if they could just understand things better they could see their way clear to move forward, create the life they want to live and everything would be happy ever after.
Sure. Because one more fact, one more theory, one more class or philosophy or meditation or healing practice added to the ton already stored in their amazing brain will make all the difference. Oh…wait…no it won’t. Understanding is a brain process. It’s about logic and problem solving and making things make sense. Like straightening a bowl of spaghetti it seeks to make order, make plans, and then create control and harmony through those plans. Nothing wrong with that, but it’s not the be all and end all of life. If it were then mathematicians would rule the world with an iron fist. Muwhahahahaha….ahem….where was I? Oh yeah, so there’s the “should” that comes from the problem solving logic brain which understands things and then there’s the knowing of what is that comes from the soul/heart/body.
Knowing isn’t the opposite of understanding, it isn’t life without the brain, it isn’t intuition or pure emotion, it is the active, participatory living out the meaning within all that understanding. It’s somewhat like the chicken and the egg problem. Without the chicken there can’t be an egg, but where does the chicken come from…egg…which came from…*whisper* “Gene Roddenberry ” Clients who are looking for understanding are usually to some extent out of balance with their knowingness. They often see their body as a vehicle that carts their brain around, their emotions as wild animals that will get out of control and possibly kill them if let loose, and their soul as something “out there” which needs to be sought in order to receive communication. Yet without balance, without a harmony between these three and right relationship between them and the brain there can be no knowing. Without knowing there is no means of truly understanding, without understanding then knowing is empty.
Knowing is the application, in the moment, of theory, the “just knowing” which comes from the soul and the body, the wisdom that comes from empathy with another, being fully present including feeling and expressing our full range of emotions. Coming from a knowing place, letting our understanding guide our response to our knowing, let our knowing lead us into a more complete understanding, well that’s the rhythm of a healthy life.