CONTENTS
The capability to reason; the acquisition of knowledge (wisdom)
Examples
The best way to acquire "distinctions"
Doesn't our brain already do this?
Learning distinctions in life and in relationships
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One of the key skills in life, using our great gift of a higher thinking brain, is "making distinctions" (or "distinguishing the differences" or "seeing the differences').
"THE CAPABILITY TO REASON; THE ACQUISITION OF KNOWLEDGE (WISDOM)
We have the capacity to reason. With this we can discriminate as to what works and what doesn’t.
In order to discriminate we need to have knowledge of sufficient details so that we can distinguish between the two. We call those distinctions.
When we lack sufficient information (details, distinctions) to make good decisions, we should go get the information. (Duh!)
We get it either by learning (getting sufficient details into our knowledge base) or by getting it from a resource. Learning works. Using excellent resources works.
With these details (information) and reasoning, we can put together what works and what doesn’t."
EXAMPLES
A simple example of a distinction is seeing that one object is closer than another, which allows us to maneuver physically and to guage the immediacy of dangers. If all things looked like they were the same distance away, we would be in big trouble in more circumstances.
While the above is a "physical" distinction example, the same idea is true of "mental" distinctions.
If we could not tell who is a danger and who is not, we could have problems.
Fortunately, evolution built in some automatic distinction capability where we "learned" (evolved) over time to see nuances of emotion, such as anger, and/or of intent, such as another being unfriendly or hostile. These are "subtle" distinctions, but the generalities that our lower, less smart brains developed have served us well overall, as they alert us so that we can then use our higher brain to further decide what is true by applying the higher brain's finer distinctions to make a better conclusion. This distinguishing skill is often called "emotional intelligence."
THE BEST WAY TO ACQUIRE "DISTINCTIONS"
Of course, it has to be from learning - and that learning must be
1. Systematic (not random)
2. From experts (not from non-experts, well-meaning friends, etc.)
Sometimes there are high intensity or high focus workshops that offer distinctions in life, such as the organization at the end of this section or those listed under the Psychological Resources section. The Life University suggests especially effective ways to learn life, plus identifying the means for different ages.
DOESN'T OUR BRAIN ALREADY DO THIS?
“…primitive limbic reasoning commits the twin logical fallacies of hasty generalizations and misplaced causality.”
Basically, again, we can't leave it up to the two lower brains! (Duh!)
LEARNING DISTINCTIONS IN LIFE AND IN RELATIONSHIPS
In life:
Landmark Education emphasizes "making distinctions" as a key means to learn, making over 100 distinctions (points of differentiation) in their beginning Forum. It is definitely useful to take that workshop. It'll blow your old thinking out of the water and into a better, more useful place!
In relationships:
