NATURE AND LIFE LESSONS

Knowing When to Turn the Volume Up or Down

A clear connection to a wise solution

Photo by olia danilevich@Pexels

Youthful Indiscretion

Up and at it earlier than usual recently, I put what I knew to good use.

After meditating on a passage about how some people talk well beyond what they actually know, I went to work putting that notion to the test on myself.

Mindful of the response an elderly fellow gave when asked how it felt to put away youthful indiscretions, I tried his answer out all day long.

“I haven’t reached that age yet!”

Scrolling down the weather forecast and double-checking air quality, I set myself up for the first mistake by failing to pay close attention to the numbers related to the feel in the shade.

Comfortable with my weigh-in of a pound more than yesterday after a heavy plant-based dinner, I rationalized that the additional padding would compensate if the temperature seemed too cool for my midnight blue cotton T-shirt, a brand new one unworn until I slipped it on to test the fit.

Snug in all the right places to show off my nano muscles after pushups yesterday, the shirt looked good in the mirror, as my ego turned up the volume.

A Warmup

Given those conditions, I stepped outside and quickly discovered goosebumps on both arms. Too stubborn to go back inside to grab a long-sleeved shirt, I let a bit of self-talk win me over — especially considering how my body has generally overheated once my feet started jogging on the sidewalk up the hill beyond the intersection. Plus, with each hour, the sun would warm up any possibility of cooler air.

My mind had lined up a couple of reasonable arguments, so I ignored the goosebumps once I picked up speed down the warmup hill before crossing over to the harder part.

Breathless as I neared the stopping point beside a pair of Sugi trees, I slowed to a casual stroll, stepped onto the grass to brush my palm against the green tips of limbs, then began a long climb to the top and around a corner.

Still on the cooler side after several minutes, I put my remaining faith in the sun warming up both arms once I made it to the nature trail entrance.

A Guessing Game

Content to name unique plants or trees along the way, I put the overcast day aside and made the most of my outing.

Instead of veering over to shorten my walk, I changed my mind once I noticed blooms straight ahead on the next block, where a Japanese lilac stood seemingly feet taller than last year. From a distance, I just knew I’d get a closeup whiff of its fragrance. Yet, I guessed wrong again.

Every bloom appeared on limbs too high for me to reach, so I tried to catch a hint of sweetness wafting lower as I crossed over to my usual route.

Now down two mistaken notions, I glided on and soon came to the wood chip entrance of the nature trail, where I hoped the walk would get a little warmer.

Just as I did with the two Sugi trees earlier, I extended my hand for a high-five as I walked by another one, this time shouldered between a false cypress and white pine needles. Since reading a science article weeks ago about the benefits of touching certain trees, I’ve made it a mission to at least brush my palm against the three Japanese cedars in the neighborhood.

The Racing Brain and Playing Children

Around a bend of the paved path ahead, a girl dangled her leg from the lowest branch of a tree as she talked with her friend hidden by the trunk.

Immediately after seeing them — and perhaps primed by my Zoom meeting comment last night, when I admitted to skipping like an eight-year-old when all alone on a certain part of the trail to practice sprinting — I considered how the two women approaching might look if they climbed into a tree to chat.

With my brain racing faster than my pace after a few miles, I later had to flag my System 1 reflexive judgment when I saw a guy wobbling behind the women with his feet pointed outward.

As fatigue set in with every mile while goosebumps still appeared on both arms, my focus would come and go, though I caught myself from time to time.

Mind Tricks of a Noisy System

When I finally reached the turnaround for home beneath the twin Norway spruces, I had given up hope of the sun breaking through the clouds, so I got in my sets of squats and lunges, then turned for the pine canopy and the fragrant pine needles.

Though an odor lingered along one narrow trail, I held my breath until fresh air swept away the smell of aftershave.

Once back on the paved main path — where only I walked around a bend — I practiced skipping for several strides before settling back into a slower stroll.

Now nearly done with exercise, I stopped on the sidewalk of an intersection to stretch out my tendons before a final uphill jog on the lower portion of a steep climb.

To make certain I got in good work for a chilly day out in the wrong shirt, I took time to stretch out my legs on a log before calling it quits.

My chilly outing and wandering thoughts proved how a little discomfort can amplify cognitive noise that clouds our better judgment.

Back home in more comfortable temperatures, I went through the usual routine.

Before night fell, I would add at least one more example that demonstrated that I still had plenty of room for growth — including one classic film suggestion that missed the mark by a few generations.

Between my experience after choosing the short-sleeved cotton T-shirt on an overcast morning and the refrain in remembering the elderly man’s response to a question about youthful indiscretion, I had seen how the mind could trick anyone into a little self-deception, regardless of life experience.

“I haven’t reached that age yet!”

While sifting through Solomon’s passage featuring a clamorous woman who talked well beyond what she knew, I drew a connection to how the brain often turned the volume up on the wrong solution — in what the Nobel Prize-winning behavioral economist Daniel Kahneman called a noisy system full of hidden cognitive bias.

For the faithful who develop an inner mute button, intentionally quieting the ego creates a quiet space for the voice of wisdom — all too often obscured by pride or some other vice.

How has your mind turned the volume of your inner voice up or down?

The Mute Button

know — yada

A primitive root; to know (properly, to ascertain by seeing) — acknowledge, acquaintance, advise, answer, assuredly, comprehend, consider, cunning, be diligent, discern, discover, familiar friend, feel, instruct, kinsfolk, knowledge, perceive, privy to, have respect, skill, be sure, of a surety, teach, tell, understand, wit.

Source: KJV Proverbs 9:1–18 (13)

“A foolish woman is clamorous: she is simple, and knoweth nothing.”