Beyond information, into truth
Why knowing isn’t necessarily the same as growing
Do you love reading about inner work? Do you enjoy following the insights of others, discovering how our inner terrain seems to be connected, and exploring new maps of the human experience? If so, you aren’t alone. Many of us find this process deeply inspiring. It’s a vital part of the journey — but we need to be honest about what is actually happening when we engage with it.
The constructive mind vs. true insight
When we read or listen to growth work, we are primarily engaging a specific faculty: our linear, constructive mind. This part of us is brilliant at sorting, categorising, and assessing information. It loves ‘understanding’ and ‘knowing’. (You can read more about head centre intelligence in general and the constructive function in particular in the previous post When the mind relinquishes control.)
Because words and language are the primary tools of our cognitive faculty, it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that because we have theoretical knowledge about something, we also know this ‘something’. It’s a bit like believing that describing a problem is the same as solving it. And we all know that's not quite true.
But intelligence operates through other channels, too. In my book, Body Wisdom, I explore how true insight requires more than just processing data; it requires a state of openness. While the constructive mind is busy handling, analysing, sorting, concluding, and speculating, our deeper wisdom is found in being present to an experience. This isn’t a passive state; it’s an active, wakeful, breathing availability that allows direct knowing to find us, rather than us hunting it down.
Growth follows experience, not data
To actually transform something within, we have to move past the preparation stage.
In our culture, we are trained to believe that if we can summarise a concept, memorise details, and pass an exam, we have learned something. But the realm of inner growth, those tools fall flat. Reading, discussing, and analysing, while often rewarding and illuminating, is just the ‘prep work’. It provides maps, but the maps, famously, are not the territory.
The irony of the digital age is that we often inadvertently skip the actual learning — the experiential exploration. We learn conceptual theory, turn it over in our mind, and then attempt to jump straight to the integration step, despite the fact that we haven’t done anything yet; haven't experienced anything in need of integration. The result is a collection of ‘half-baked’ thoughts— often someone else’s — that don’t actually change how we move through the world.
It’s your presence and attention that matter
On social media and in online forums, ‘inner work’ is frequently treated as an intellectual sport. We dissect theories and debate principles, and they which can be entertaining and even useful, too — but only as long as we don’t mistake these activities for the ‘work’ itself.
But don’t worry. If you are committed to being present to your inner unfoldment — alongside the Enneagram or through any transformational path — the goal isn’t to stop reading or thinking. It’s to ensure that your intellectual energy is balanced by an experiential one. We don’t need to judge ourselves for being ‘in our heads’; we just need to notice when we’ve set up camp there and forgotten to be present to our actual life experience.
A simple practice: Where is your attention?
To keep your inner work from becoming just another intellectual exercise, you don’t need a complex protocol. You just need to reclaim your attention.
Throughout the day, ask yourself one simple question:
‘Where is my attention right now?’
Don’t over-analyse the answer. Just notice the quality of your presence:
Is my attention ‘out there’ — lost in a screen, a book, or a theory?
Is my attention ‘up here’ — busy planning, judging, figuring out, or categorising?
Is my attention ‘in here’—settled in the physical reality of my body, the weight of my feet, or the rhythm of my breath?
Transformation happens in the ‘in here’. The more we bring our attention back to the present moment, the more we move from collecting information to truly learning.