mindfulness – Migo Aguado

The Art of Insight argues that insight is not a product of forceful analysis or memory retrieval, but a fundamentally different mode of thinking. Charles Kiefer & Malcolm Constable, principals in an innovation consulting firm, argues that modern education and work environments condition people into “memory thinking,” where solutions are sought by interrogating past knowledge, often disconnecting them from their natural capacity for fresh insight. True insights arise in an “easygoing, open, and unpressured” state of mind, where thinking is relaxed rather than fixated on problems. This state cannot be forced through rigid techniques but can be cultivated through awareness and practice. Ultimately, insight is framed as an art—something innate yet improvable through attention to how thought itself operates.

As Man Thinketh (1903) is more than a century old, and it shows. James Allen, the author of the supposed self-help book, harbors on the idea that circumstances are products of mindset: “A man does not come to the almshouse or the jail by the tyranny of fate or circumstance but by the pathway of groveling thoughts and base desires.” Moreover, Allen argues that one can choose how to think and, therefore, can shape his destiny: “A man cannot directly choose his circumstances, but he can choose his thoughts, and so indirectly, yet surely, shape his circumstances.” His adage “So You will be what you will be” is catchy and has its merits but is generally a poorly put generalization in modern self-development studies.

Tag: mindfulness

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As A Man Thinketh