My word for this week’s Mental Sunshine is Intelligent.
How can being intelligent bring Mental Sunshine into your life, you ask?
Well, it’s the difference between being intelligent, and feeling intelligent.
Think about the buzzy feeling you get if you manage to shout out the right answer when watching a quiz show on TV.
Of course, we all have varying levels of intelligence – and this is not about being more clever than someone else or having all the answers.
Rather, it’s about doing something to show yourself: Hey, I’m actually pretty intelligent” – something that can help to boost your ego and make you feel a little brighter.
How can you do this?
You could sign up for a daily email such as Today I Found Out or Daily Fun Facts.
You could watch a quiz show and see how many questions you get right (Richard Osman’s House of Games is good for this, as they’re not your usual quiz show questions)
You could read an article on a new subject and see if you can learn something new
Whatever you decide to do, be sure you’re not trying to learn particle physics in an afternoon!
Aim low with this one – the idea is that you do something to show yourself you’re intelligent, not convince yourself you’re stupid because you don’t know all the answers!
And don’t mix up intelligence with wisdom
Intelligence is knowing that a tomato is a fruit
Wisdom is knowing not to put it in a fruit salad…
