Uncommon Sense

Everyone always tells you to follow your common sense, but what if your common sense is the very thing that is leading you astray?  Have you ever questions were our common sense comes from?  After all, I look left then right before I cross the street, which to most of us would be common sense.  My friend in Europe looks right then left before she crosses the street, which is common sense for her.  If she were to come and visit me and looks right and starts to step into the street before she looks left, it could kill her.  Her common sense didn’t serve her correctly in this situation.

The example I gave might sound silly, but what is the main point here?  If you always follow your common sense without asking if it actually makes sense it could very well get you in trouble.  Most of the things that we consider to be common sense are things that were passed down for generations.  These are things that are taught to us from our parents, grandparents and other friends and relatives.  Our family members had our best interest at heart when they were teaching us, but what if what they were teaching us doesn’t serve us, protect us, or help us today?  What if instead of following our common sense we need to begin to follow our uncommon sense.  We need to begin to do things different.  We need to begin to think, speak, and act differently in order to get the results we want.

How can you start to follow your uncommon sense?  For starters, try meditating every day for 20 minutes.  Start your day with gratitude and mediation.  This is something we should all be doing, but isn’t a common practice in the United States.  Did you know that starting your day with mediation and gratitude can shift your entire outlook on what you can do and what the day can bring.  Mediation is my good morning bountiful harvest.  It makes me see how many amazing things I have in my life and how I get to choose how to view each experience.  My uncommon sense practice of meditation helps me to release strong holds of anger, fear, and doubt.  Maybe this can start to be your uncommon sense stress reliever too.

Another uncommon sense activity that I participate in regularly is riding in silence.  You got it, I turn off the radio and I drive in complete silence.  At first this felt uncomfortable because I didn’t like the silence.  It felt awkward and weird for things to be completely quiet when I was driving, but then I noticed something after the second or third day of complete silence, my mind started talking to me.  Not aloud of course!  I mean, my mind started to give me flashes of inspiration and helped me work through problems and issues that I was trying to work through.  I can now ride for hours on end without listening to the radio and I actually like it.  If the radio is on too much it actually starts to irritate me because my mind is craving the silence so that I can hear what is trying to tell me.

Uncommon sense moments aren’t things we are often taught and they don’t take a lot of practice to become good at them.  Uncommon sense takes patience and the willingness to know that you are trying to change habits and actions so that you can become more connected with you.  Take time and practice some uncommon sense.