Diverse life experiences can be good medicine for a closed mind. The state of one’s mind is often laid bare in those situations that challenge your deepest beliefs. That challenge your view of the world and how you believe things should be.

Vastness of experience

But, we do not have to travel far and wide in search of different experiences. Every single day of human life is filled with a multitude of thoughts, feelings and emotions — some fleeting, others longer lasting. Thoughts, feelings and emotions that come and go in response to various stimuli. But, how aware are we of these? How aware are we of the vastness of the human experience that is unfolding within us?

The physicist, Erwin Schrödinger, noted that “the development of an embryo from the fertilised ovum affords us a certain representation of the evolution of the species”. Meaning that for example the way a child learns its first language may well offer good insights into how the human species developed language.

In the same way, cultivating a deeper awareness of how we show-up under different daily circumstances, no matter how mundane, can teach us much. How you experience and deal with fleeting pains and joys over a matter of minutes can be mini versions of the “longer” ups and downs of major life events. Indeed, human experience has a fractal (self-similar) quality to it.

Not the only medicine for a closed mind

So, one need not have lived a long life and experienced many facets of the world to develop wisdom. This may certainly help, but it is not a guarantee — it is neither necessary nor sufficient. For, if you go through life half-asleep, then no amount of life experience is going to matter. On the other hand, if you are open to a deeper enquiry of self — your inner experience and its connection with the world — then you may gain much in a short time!

This is the path of self-knowledge. 

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Harsha is a 1:1 coach and independent thinker based in London. He empowers people to find more clarity, confidence and focus in their lives — to cut through the noise, in a world so full of it. Harsha’s new book, Machine Ego: Tragedy of the Modern Mind, is now available in paperback and Kindle through Amazon.