When reason is not enough
- Fe Robinson
- 1 day ago
- 2 min read
You do not need a reason to be as you are. You are you. You are enough.
I have been reflecting on the perils of believing that everything must be rationalised, and that reason is all. I often find that people can become trapped in a cycle of thinking, that they must find a reason for whatever is happening. Sometimes, if they can not, they can become stuck and defenceless, unable to act because they can not justify whatever it is that seems good to do.
Recognising that reason is not enough, is not everything, is crucial. After all, reason is neither linear nor singular. Did the barista snap at me because they are a rude person? Because they were having a bad day? Because a relative has just died? Or they have money worries? Or because of something they perceived about me, or the last customer? On and on, I could come up with many, many reasons, and the ones I will conjure are those that make the most sense given my past history, physiological state and mental / emotional state. We all construct our own reality based on what we expect to perceive.
All of this means that to rely on reason alone is not reasonable. Our thinking mind can deal with circa 7 things at once (miller's Law tells us it's 7 +/- 2). Our unconscious being processes thousands of things simultaneously, our hearts just beat, we regulate temperature, we manage perception and information from our senses, we regenerate cells etc etc etc. There is a wealth of skill and experience that is mostly beyond conscious knowing, our interoception (inside), exteroception (environment) and proprioception (position/movement) combine to create our sense of ourself. We are constantly scanning our environment and ourselves for news of difference that we respond to often before the awareness is conscious.
A problem can not be solved by the mindset that created it. To grow, we need to embrace new perspectives and sources of awareness flexibly. Moving beyond reason, what does your intuition and bodily wisdom tell you?
You have every right to be, just as you are, even when it defies reason. You do not always have to be reasonable, certainly not if the definition of that reason is not your own. So long as you are cognisant of and happy to be with the consequences of how you are and what you do, your space to be is your own.
