Information vs. Experience

This sounds like an either/or and I am a person who loves the "both/ands."

Information is a powerful thing. It is said that we live in an age of information. There is so much information, and it is easily accessible. It can feel like a barrage, sometimes. What can we do with this deluge of often conflicting information? Does it change anything?

When I really think about the things that have changed me, helped me grow, increased my confidence, critical thinking skills, my physical and mental capacities, it has been experiences.

I heard someone say recently that information doesn't change people, experiences do.

That really made me pause. Because change, as we know, can be hard. This is not to say that information cannot create change. But when I reflect on the things that have really changed my mind, my body, my long-held beliefs and/or cherished notions of how things are, how I am, it is the experiences that have shown me, literally, a different way.

Information is like a set of tools: until we experience using those tools, holding them in our hands and viscerally working and playing with them, that information is neutral and unrealized.

Feeling yourself getting stronger, for instance, has a way of showing our brain that we can change, that we are always changing, and we can play a part in the direction of some of this inevitable change. The feeling of doing something that you were a little scared of, and being okay, is powerful. It can motivate us to step into new situations that we might previously have avoided because we have experienced being in uncomfortable places and being okay.

I can go on and on about the benefits of play for the brain, for instance, or the benefits of movement for the body, but there is nothing like experiencing these benefits.  

I like to think that on The Playground, we are creating a time and space for powerful experiences: We explore and expand our movement literacy and our human capacities through deliberate, yet PLAYFUL practice. 

I love how our body is both a source of information, and a vehicle for experience. 

So, whenever I learn some new piece of information about the body, the brain, or breath, for instance, I like to imagine how I might experience this, if it is something that can be experienced. I ask myself, "how might I play with this concept?" 

If I can experience a concept, if I can FEEL it in my body, apply it in some way, then that concept may transfer over into other activities or areas of my life. And that is a concept worth adopting.

I want to apply it, live it, EXPERIENCE it in a way that just having the information cannot possibly confer. 

How about you?