Can life-changing insights be cultivated at will?

In an important sense, western philosophers, neuroscientists, and quantum physicists are in agreement with ancient Eastern contemplative traditions - that our experience of the ‘outside world’ is like a best guess or working hypothesis. 

Rather than being entirely separate and independent, the world we experience is always mediated by the mind - meaning that what we’re inhabiting at any given time is like a mental model of reality.

This moment-by-moment, internally generated perceptual reality gives rise to two fundamental misunderstandings which are themselves the source of most of our problems.

The first is that we relate to a fixed past and future, and mistake our highly subjective memories and projections as a definite reality with the power to make us feel a certain way.

Lost in anxiety about an imagined future, or caught up in painful memories about the past, we unquestionably believe that we’re experiencing those circumstances, rather than mere mental recreations of them in the present.

The second misunderstanding is equating the essence of who we are with our physical body, appearance, personal history, bank balance, or reputation.

The result in this case is that our sense of self becomes disempowered and highly unstable.

What both of these misunderstandings have in common is that they present us with a highly distorted version of reality. And under their influence, we look out on the world through a ‘virtual reality’ headset of unhelpful misunderstandings.

To put this in practical terms - as a medical intern, I observed many patients who, after having undergone open-heart surgery to bypass clogged up arteries, immediately returned to smoking and drinking.

From a professional point of view, I found this deeply perplexing - how could something so drastic not lead someone to change their behavior for good? 

Later as a family physician, I encountered the same phenomenon again - and it was immensely frustrating that in so many cases, no matter how much the riot act was read to them, certain patients appeared unable to change their behavior for long.

But later, in my own journey of self-discovery and self-improvement, I discovered my own personal resistance to positive change. And this gave me reason to pause.

What I came to understand is that change is difficult because our actions are always in accordance with our current ‘map’ or subjective version of reality.

For lasting change to occur, that underlying map of meaning has to change, and this can only occur through a genuine insight - a fresh new way of seeing that is actually reality-based.

What’s interesting here is that most of us would assume that transformative insights cannot be manufactured at will. But is that actually the case?

To explore this, consider the following question: when do you get your best ideas? 

Here are a few examples that my clients have given me: walking in nature, sitting quietly in meditation, chilling with friends, on the cusp of falling asleep, listening to music, driving, taking a shower, or just sitting around doing nothing.

The common denominator in all of these is that they are situations where we actually let our mind relax. And because the speed of our thinking slows down, the natural clarity of the mind has a rare opportunity to emerge.

Practically speaking, the difference between a good idea and a genuine insight is a question of magnitude or impact. A good idea can change the course of your day, but an insight can change the way you see the world for good.

And it’s my experience - and that of many of my clients -  that the longer you spend in a quiet mind, absorbed in a good feeling, the more it’s possible for transformative insights to occur. 

All that’s really needed to cultivate insights is to become sufficiently peaceful and present. And those are conditions that we can learn to cultivate at will.

In my work with clients, my main job is to procure insights by creating the right kind of conducive environment in which they’re likely to occur.

Whatever the problem is, I know that absorption into peace and presence will always yield powerful, as yet unseen solutions.

And I know that when we see clearly who we are, and where our experiences are really coming from, transformative insights with the power to do all the heavy lifting are always within our grasp.