The thought for today is KNOWLEDGE.   It has been said, knowledge is power.  If you interpret that as the more knowledge you have the more powerful you are, it would explain why you have an anxious, fearful and vulnerable response to “not knowing”.

The good news is, True Knowledge comes from uncertainty.   A famous Zen story teaches “You are like a full cup, when you are full of ideas and you ask for teaching, you cannot put anything in.  Before you learn anything new, you must empty your cup.”

Most of the time, the answers we seek are just below the surface of our own heart.  Trusting your own knowing is the deepest seat of power.  Trusting your own knowing strengthens your convictions and deepens your wisdom and understanding.

Whether you refer to your “own knowing” as intuition, gut feeling, inkling or hunch,  it is not a single way of knowing – it is your ability to hold space for uncertainty and your willingness to trust the many ways you’ve developed knowledge and insight, including instinct, experience, faith and reason to give you the answer.

Today consciously expand your knowledge about yourself, your intutition, your compassion and peace through books, newspapers, television or friends.  Share what you have learned with at least three other people, and invite them to learn, too.

Embracing uncertainty is the greatest form of wisdom for it allows new ideas, perspectives and insights.  A Forbes article for 2014 sums up uncertainty and how to make big leaps in your life.  Embracing Undertainty

Five keys ways to achieve knowledge and wisdom:

Embrace uncertainty, however uncomfortable.

Be flexible in how you approach your challenges. If you keep doing what you’ve always done, you’ll keep getting the results you’ve always got!

Take chances, foregoing the security of the known for the unknown.

Trust yourself that whatever happens, you can handle it. Time to stop underestimating yourself!

Refuse to succumb to negativity, no matter what (and no matter how pessimistic others may be!)

Think About It

What is something positive that you have learned about yourself that has really made a difference in your life?

Take Action

Begin a journal to record what you are learning about peace, compassion, intuition.  Add graphics, newspaper clippings, art, song, lyrics, poems, etc.

Major Do:  Remember Paulo Coelho’s words:  Intuition is really a sudden immersion of the soul into the universal current of life, here the histories of all people are connected, and you are able to know everything, because it is all written there.

Major Don’t:  Quit disrespecting your internal instinct!

Words to live by:  Education is the most powerful weapon that you can use to change the world – Nelson Mandela