The polarization in society seems to be increasing. X and other social media are overflowing with opinions. Many are busy judging, wanting to be right, convincing, and opposing. With what result? It only leads to separation, not only from the other but also from yourself.

But what might actually work? What if we replaced the focus on what we think with a focus on how we think?

Perhaps it is time for a new way of thinking, an integrated way. No longer judging and opposing but noticing and including.

Whole-mind thinking

In Transformational Presence, this way of thinking is called 'whole-mind thinking.' When all three intelligences (head, heart, and belly) are involved and work well together, the heart reaches out. It gathers information about what is happening more fundamentally and sees the bigger picture. The belly immediately responds with information about how you are experiencing things right now, in this moment, and the head starts to organize and categorize that information. The more practiced you are in working with this multi-level awareness, the more it all happens simultaneously.

Your intellect or head intelligence is good at categorizing and analyzing, in other words, breaking things down and viewing them separately. It acts as if everything is separate. By examining the (seemingly) separate parts, you think (!) you get a view of the whole. This type of thinking has been dominant since the Renaissance and has brought us much prosperity.

However, it has also brought us the belief that we are separate from everything and everyone around us. And the realization is increasingly dawning that, at a deeper level, we are actually connected to everything and everyone. By also involving your belly and heart intelligence, in a powerful partnership with your head intelligence, you enhance your awareness, your 'thinking' becomes more integrated, and connectedness becomes the starting point from which you live.

Wanting to discover

The core of the movement of change in how we think is from wanting to understand what has happened (causes, explanations, justification, blame, focused on the past) to wanting to discover what wants to happen (potential, the new, the unknown, focused on the future).

A shift from seeking hold and wanting to control things to trusting and being okay with the uncertainty of not knowing.

As a first step this week, practice telling what you have noticed in yourself or in a situation instead of telling what you think about something. In other words, represent your experience without labeling or judging it. This provides new information and is very likely to create recognition or curiosity in the other person. It also creates forward discovery. More inner peace and lightness arise. Try it out.

I wish you many judgment-free discoveries!