You Can Tell Someone’s Unusually Intelligent If They Can Do One Thing Most People Spend Their Lives Trying To Figure Out
mehrab zahedbeigi | PexelsThere are always different factors that determine intelligence, and more often than not, retaining facts isn't one of them. What if real intelligence, or more specifically, the rare trait of wisdom, is much more philosophical than what you learn from a book?
In a TikTok video, a mindfulness coach named Celastrina Calea revealed that for people with a high level of intelligence, it's often directly linked to a specific ability they have. Some might view it as ambivalence, but it's much deeper than that. It's the ability to recognize that two conflicting notions can exist and hold truth at the same time.
Someone's unusually intelligent if they can hold two paradoxes as equally true at the same time.
"There is a very high form of intelligence that I see so rarely in people, and I know that I've said before that the highest form of intelligence is metacognition, the ability to think of your own thinking, but there is another one that goes even further that perhaps cannot even be called intelligence but wisdom," Calea began in her video.
She explained it's the kind of person who has the ability to hold two paradoxes as equally true. They aren't just trying to resolve tension; they're not choosing a side either, but standing right in the middle. They allow both ideas to be real.
For example, they can be deeply disturbed by the state of the world and, at the same time, have genuine gratitude and be humbled by the gift of life. To grieve what they have lost and still be grateful for what remains for everything that remains. It's about letting go of what you can't control and, at the same time, taking action toward the change you want.
It takes courage to acknowledge oppositional truths.
F01 PHOTO | Shutterstock
Psychotherapist Margo Lowy explained, "To avoid personal discomfort when we are confronted with ambivalence, we often default to the binary, limiting our feelings and interactions to or, neglecting the possibility of and."
She continued, "We may see ourselves, for example, as joyous or deflated, lonely or connected, despairing or composed, resentful or compassionate. Rather than movement and fluidity, this position is dominated by rigidity and a firm adherence to holding only one belief at a time."
It takes rare intelligence to see both sides and understand that there is a place in between where both ideas not only exist but exist as fact. It can feel uncomfortable, and that's why most people rebel against it. But if you can sit in the ambivalence and be comfortable knowing that both are true, that's wisdom.
One of the most commonly referred to paradoxes is the liar paradox. "This sentence is false." Now, think about that for a moment. If it's true, it's also false. If the sentence is false, it's also true. It kind of hurts your brain a little, and that's the point.
"It takes courage and effort to admit to our inner contradictions, those that color our everyday feelings, interactions, and relationships, and which are so often socially and personally unacceptable. We need to flow with this challenging and often counterintuitive state of mind," Lowy added.
The moment that you're able to hold onto whatever paradox you're being confronted with and you don't flinch at all is the moment that you're able to have a grasp on real understanding. It's philosophical reasoning that can take a lifetime to begin to understand.
Nia Tipton is a staff writer with a bachelor’s degree in creative writing and journalism who covers news and lifestyle topics that focus on psychology, relationships, and the human experience.
