Wake up your wisdom

Today I write my first blog in English. I was a member of Junior Chamber International (JCI) some years ago. The slogan of JCI is learning by doing. So, let’s overcome uncertainties and see how far I get in English.

At JCI, the moment you hit 40 you need to step back for the next generation, which is a beautiful concept, but to be honest a huge part of my personal learning journey started after 40 and is in fact still continuing which I assume is the situation for many us. Here is something that happened to me after 40, which has accelerated my personal learning curve.

At the age of 41, I unexpectedly received an e-mail of my former yoga teacher which indicated that the yoga teacher training would start again. Though I never wanted to become a yoga teacher, I immediately felt this was my way to go forward in life as I knew I was open for change and had a wish for personal growth. But, I graduated twice and I was fed up studying. In my mind studying was soaking energy and after the second master’s degree I promised myself I never had to study again.

I called my yoga teacher to discuss that I would join in learning the yoga poses and get the meditation training, but I would skip the philosophy part. She agreed on not doing homework, but for not disturbing the lessons, she requested me to stay during philosophy class. So, I did and… the unexpected happened: As from day 1, it was the philosophy part that draw my attention. I started to read, study, read more and I never stopped and the beauty of that is that I feel richer and more grateful than ever.

When we’re stuck in old patterns and habits, like I was myself, we tend to forget how valuable our learning is to us. New insights make us grow and make change possible. Every day many learning opportunities are open to us. Sometimes they’re very small and as we have a natural habit to avoid change, we don’t even notice them.

Close to my house, there is a little bookcase standing outside under a shed. It’s a tiny bookcase, but it’s filled with a huge variety of books: novels, management books, thrillers, cookbooks, autobiographies. If you want to, you can pick one and take it home with you, or of course, you can bring yours that you don’t wish to keep anymore and share with others.

Every time I pass by, I see a range of beautiful books staring at me. And very often I wished I had more time and I thought “tomorrow”.

But I’m a learner by nature. I love to absorb new insights and whenever I think “tomorrow”, I’ve just wasted one day on my learning curve. So, I went there and got me a new book today!

Will you join me today and wake up your wisdom too?

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_{^{© Pamela Cools – Wake up your wisdom}}