Before understanding gravity and its influence on planets and tides, ancient people thought the planets were pushed around by angels and that supernatural forces governed the tides. People’s thinking was out of sync with the natural phenomenon of gravity. And from that thinking, misaligned behaviours followed. Ancient peoples, not understanding the earth’s rotation and movement of the planets, used to light fires on the horizon to attract the sun back each day. They were afraid it wouldn’t return.

However, once Newton articulated the principle of gravity, people’s thinking and behaviour changed. The ‘crazy’ stuff stopped. When how we think and talk about a natural phenomenon aligns with the truth about how it works, our behaviours become less ‘crazy’.

The same is true with the phenomenon of the innate wisdom that flows through every human being. It comes to us via thought and the more our thinking attunes to it, the more easily we recognise it in a feeling of ‘right’. Like the ancients who didn’t understand gravity and got lost in emotions, behaviours and habits that were misaligned with the phenomenon of gravity, so too do human beings get lost in emotions, behaviours and habits that are misaligned with the phenomenon on innate wisdom. In both cases, the erroneous thinking of human beings, before clear understanding, creates bizarre behaviour.

Adolescence is the perfect time to educate about the phenomenon of innate wisdom and the role of thinking in aligning with the principle of innate wisdom or sending us down rabbit holes. In adolescence, thinking capacities expand and our young people become more aware of the dynamics around them. When I work with those young people trying to make sense of their lives, they clearly see the misaligned behaviours in the adult circles around them, but (a) they don’t have the understanding to think about those behaviours in a way that makes sense, and (b) because no one talks about innate wisdom, they don’t look to that for validation and instead make up, and get locked into, all sorts of other stuff about themselves and their situation.

Adolescents experience innate wisdom about their contexts; they need space to voice what comes from it. Their wisdom or common sense needs to be validated, otherwise, we are ‘crazymaking’ them. Adolescents experience shifts in mood; the role of thought in that shift can be brought to awareness and adolescents can see they are not their state of mind. Adolescents know the thinking that sits under their anger, sadness and frustration; it often relates to power (or perceived lack of it). They need adults with an understanding of innate wisdom to help them to let those thoughts go and allow innate wisdom to mature their thinking and their way in the world.

We have a long way to go before the majority of humanity understands clearly the phenomenon of innate wisdom, but the change has started. Innate wisdom is active in everyone and can be heard in the words of many when talking about solutions to their lives. Unfortunately, with an absence of understanding about innate wisdom and the role of thought, we don’t think clearly about what is present and like the ancients, continue to get immersed in behaviours that don’t make sense. We need an understanding that allows us to think more clearly about what already exists. We need an understanding of innate wisdom and the role of thought so that our thinking about ourselves and each other aligns with innate wisdom instead of negating it. With a clear understanding, our innate mental health is worked with instead of fought against. With understanding, the ancients could stop lighting fires on the horizon to attract the sun. One day we too can stop engaging in crazy behaviours to attract mental health. We can all come home to truth.