One of the most beautiful - and infuriating - things about language is how you can have one word and then attribute a whole host of meaning to it based on a given context. When people complain about how ridiculous English is, this is usually one of the major things brought up (aside from wonky grammar rules). A good example of this is a word I heard for the first time a couple months ago: metanoia. It means "changing one's mind" in Ancient Greek and is rooted in rhetoric.
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Should be simple, right? An important part of rhetoric is being able to state your claim, back it up with evidence, and then convince others of your perspective on the matter being discussed. In the cases where another speaker convinces you of being wrong or you find yourself noticing an error while you're speaking on the subject, metanoia has you covered. This requires a humility that's in severe short supply today, especially since most people seem to have a knack for digging deeper into their opinions instead of actually exploring why they might be wrong and how alternatives could help uncover the actual truth. The problem, as there's always something that throws the wrench, is that metanoia also has two other definitions. Both of these have actually surpassed the word's rhetorical origin and seem almost both related and contradictory with one another:
In Christian theology, it refers to undergoing an act of conversion and then prostrating before God.
In psychology, it involves undergoing a mental breakdown due to an existential crisis and then begin the process of re-healing emotionally.
Being neither a theologian nor a psychologist, these are probably the simplest ways to describe how metanoia fits within those fields. If you dig further and read how experts approach those definitions, they become a lot more complex. This isn't surprising and rather expected as these processes almost always require much time, thought, and energy to get through if the person undergoing them is serious about affecting change in their life. You are literally changing your mind, the very center of how you perceive yourself and the world you interact with at all times. There are certainly people who would claim to "change" but often return to how they were before. In the rhetorical sense, metanoia indicates that there was mostly a change in argument but not always in attitude. The other two definitions require that the change happens to attitude as well, though. All three require humility, which is the core thing that connects them.
While I'm apathetic to practicing religion on the whole (though very interested in reading about it) and still a few years away from a mid-life crisis (though just barely), I can relate to the concept of metanoia when viewed holistically. It's the humility required to undergo it all that's impressive, an approach that I wish more people around the world considered instead of falling into the current narcissist-grifter viewpoint that anything clashing with your views must be annihilated. Just look into it, give it a try. No matter how you practice metanoia, more humility may help push you through any fog surrounding you and expose the light needed for a better life.
(As for how I found out about all of this, there's apparently a 14-minute song by MGMT called "Metanoia" which caused me to go down this particular rabbit hole.)
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