Wisdom is something we are all familiar with in one way or another. Or is it knowledge we are all familiar with and wisdom only something certain individuals attain? To better answer this question it is good to have some idea of what both things mean. Generally wisdom is defined as the quality of having experience, knowledge, and good judgement. These are not specific definitions of knowledge or wisdom just a generalization of the common agreed upon definitions of both words. Knowledge is generally defined as a mere knowing, learning, or understanding of facts in a certain situation. Wisdom would be the actual action/ability to apply knowledge to any given situations.

Life is a melting pot of knowledge from the moment we are born and this is not just us it is also the same for any living, breathing, conscious species. For us as human beings as soon as we take our first breath everything after that is knowledge. When we are born it is assumed we know nothing. The quote from Socrates “True knowledge exists in knowing that you know nothing” is a favorite quote. What did he mean by this? The moment we are born we must take in all types of passed down knowledge the first years of our life to better understand the world and system that we are living in. Knowledge pours in through many avenues and it continues as we grow in age and emotional maturity. Individual traumas of all kinds are experienced at different times in life for everyone and knowledge of the world becomes viewed through a veil if traumas remain stuck in our memory. These traumas do not have to be dramatic like society has sensitized us to be like, with all of the desensitizing they do in the media and television/movies. Traumas can be simple things that jolted the nervous system when we were developing that were left unexplained and buried. This could be a parent yelling at us constantly, a teacher embarrassing us in front of the class, not knowing where a next meal is coming from, loud noises and violence, and so much more.

It is argued by many that pain is needed in order for us to truly open our mind, heart, and soul to the self knowledge the pain brought to the surface. The wisdom would be in not repeating the same thing over and over again. We have all been there. Stuck in a loop somehow with different aspects of our life. Feeling the same feelings we have felt in the past before. It just looks a little different each time around. So we distract ourselves. We move onto the next relationship, or job, or car, or friendship, or animal or gym, or hobby, or habit, or whatever it may be to keep us from taking a painful moment to sit with our wounds. Some of them open still, others almost scarring over but still running deep.

Sitting with the pain and darkness and embracing it as terrifying as it may seem, is the only way to move into the realm of wisdom in dense circumstances. In doing so and finally looking at the root cause, (a choice), the actualized knowledge of this choice to choose your life and that you are in control of your destiny can set in. It will look different every time but it will always feel the same if responsibility is not taken for our lives. Wisdom comes when we take responsibility for our choices. Wisdom comes when we understand that where we are at this exact moment is a result of tons and tons of choices we’ve made to get here, along with many things that are also out of our control. There is a balance to be had in life and it is up to us to find this balance that is individually different for each of us and yet symbolically the same for all of us.