For most people, we’re identified with the ego and experience ourselves as a distinct individual. In such a case, the intellect gets associated with the mind and pulled around by it.
A common way this shows up is as an inner critic or judge. One style of this is where we judge others as right or wrong, driven by our unresolved trauma. We relate to a tribe we “agree” with and make others wrong. We feel safer if we feel right. This leads to dualistic thinking and actually amplifies our sense of being unsafe.
We can see how news services came to cater to this: what’s wrong and who’s to blame. (The evolution to 24/7 news led to a lot more opinion and what-if projections. Facts gradually have become optional.) Not to mention all the polarity in social media.
Another style of this, which can be concurrent with the above, is when that judge is turned on ourselves. We judge ourselves as wrong, insufficient, or broken. We’re our own worst critic.
Of course, these are on a spectrum. We can be mildly critical, or we can be well known for it.
When we begin to heal that trauma and transcend, the mind’s narratives and noise wind down. The critic calms. The intellect gradually disentangles from the mind and comes to associate with our deeper nature. It becomes more neutral, then “resolute.”
Soon, we can come to a place of acceptance of what is. To who we are and what we have to work with. This is alignment, not giving up.
Yet even awake and in acceptance, there can still be unhealed shadows that draw the mind into judgment. Less as a theme and more in specific areas where healing remains to be done.
Deeper, we can come to a place of self-compassion, a degree of self-care we couldn’t have conceived of back in our time with the judge. The intellect can still serve its role, but it is no longer trauma-driven.
Davidya