Mental Body & Realization: Common Sense Is Overrated

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Common sense is often praised as the gold standard of intelligence.Yet, in practice, common sense frequently reflects something else entirely: conditioning.

Within the Mental Body, common sense is constructed from accumulated experiences—education, culture, social norms, and repeated reinforcement. It is efficient, familiar, and socially acceptable. But efficiency does not always equal truth, and familiarity does not guarantee wisdom.

Research in cognitive psychology shows that much of human thinking relies on mental shortcuts—heuristics that allow us to make quick decisions but also introduce systematic errors and blind spots (Kahneman, 2011). These shortcuts are useful for survival, yet limiting when applied unquestioningly to healing, personal growth, or life transitions.

The Mental Body excels at analysis, comparison, and problem-solving. However, when it dominates awareness, it can become rigid—defending old conclusions rather than responding to present reality. What we label as “common sense” often becomes a barrier to insight, reinforcing what has worked before rather than what is appropriate now.

When Thinking Softens, Realization Emerges

Realization does not arise from thinking harder. It arises when thinking loosens.

Neuroscience and contemplative research consistently show that insight is more likely to occur during moments of mental quiet—when effortful cognition subsides and awareness becomes receptive (Tang, Hölzel, & Posner, 2015). This aligns with long-standing contemplative traditions, which describe wisdom as something revealed, not manufactured.

In the Five Bodies framework, this moment marks a shift:

• from Mental Body control

• to Supra-Mental awareness

Realization feels simple, even obvious. It is often accompanied by a sense of ease rather than intellectual triumph. Many describe it as a subtle internal acknowledgment—“Ah, this is clear now.”

The Limits of “What Makes Sense”

Common sense frequently encourages:

• pushing through discomfort

• following generalized advice

• applying universal solutions to individual bodies and lives

Yet personalized healing, especially during phases such as perimenopause or major life transitions, requires context sensitivity. Research in integrative and lifestyle medicine increasingly supports individualized approaches over one-size-fits-all recommendations (Bousquet et al., 2017).

What once made sense may no longer align with the body’s current state, energy reserves, or emotional landscape. The Mental Body may insist on continuity, while deeper intelligence invites adaptation.

Repositioning the Mental Body

The Mental Body is not an enemy to be silenced. It is a tool, not the source of ultimate knowing.When the Mental Body relaxes its need to control outcomes, it becomes an interpreter—translating insight from the Vital, Supra-Mental, and Bliss layers into language and action. This integration allows wisdom to become practical without becoming rigid.

In this way, realization is not anti-intellectual. It is post-intellectual—inclusive of thought, but not ruled by it.

Sometimes, the most intelligent choice is not the most “reasonable” one, but the one that arises from presence, clarity, and internal coherence.

All of these are rarely comes from common sense alone.

Pause and Reflect

• When was the last time you felt misunderstood ̶ and could it be that the other person simply had a

different “common sense” than you?

• How often do you pause to ask what someone truly means, instead of assuming you already know?

• This week, practice listening without the need to correct or prove. Notice how that small act of

awareness shifts the energy of your conversation.

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References

Bousquet, J., Anto, J. M., Sterk, P. J., Adcock, I. M., Chung, K. F., Roca, J., … Akdis, C. A. (2017). Systems medicine and integrated care to combat chronic noncommunicable diseases. Genome Medicine, 9(1), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13073-017-0447-6

Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, fast and slow. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Tang, Y.-Y., Hölzel, B. K., & Posner, M. I. (2015). The neuroscience of mindfulness meditation. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 16(4), 213–225. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn3916

Varela, F. J., Thompson, E., & Rosch, E. (1991). The embodied mind: Cognitive science and human experience. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.