The art of knowing how to get lost, to find yourself again, according to philosophy

The art of knowing how to get lost requires being open to uncertainty, to the unknown, to what is outside of what is predictable and offers us security. Thus, in this world so dominated by technology, by Google, GPS and tutorials of all kinds, we have become over-informed (and over-protected) creatures who only long to have everything under control.

And what’s the problem? -many will say-. Actually, more than one. We write our lives on lined paper, we ensure that each event, decision or change is prepared in advance. We ask Siri or Alexa, we schedule our trips with sophisticated applications and we even create to-do lists that alert us with alarms to remind us what to do at all times.

We do not like the unexpected, we are scared by the unknown and everything that deviates from our scripts and predictions disorients us. We have become automatons of predictability, and that is not always a good thing. As Rainer Maria Rilke said, uncertainty is not an obstacle, it can be a source of life. The best path for inspiration and self-discovery.

Sometimes, to find ourselves again, it is worth getting lost, opening a door to the unexpected.

Only when we are lost do we begin to look at the world from other eyes.

The art of knowing how to get lost to find our authentic path

We have all reached those moments when, suddenly, we stop to ask ourselves a very specific question: “What am I doing with my life?” Feeling lost is one of the most stressful experiences we can remember. We don’t know whether to continue down the same path or leave everything and start again. Make a clean slate.

That overwhelming feeling of ignorance and uncertainty is a reality that multiple figures have explored.. Rebecca Solnit, for example, is a well-known American writer who published the interesting book in 2005 A guide to the art of getting lost. In it, she explores what for her and many philosophers is the stimulating experience of wandering, getting lost and embracing the unknown.

Just remember what the writer, poet and philosopher Henry David Thoreau told us: We only find ourselves when we have had the courage to lose ourselves. You have to look at life with the wonder and curiosity of a child who longs to challenge the limits imposed on him and also know what is hidden behind closed doors…

Life beyond the everyday margins

The art of knowing how to get lost involves daring to go beyond the margins that contain us every day and explore the unknown. Embrace the strange. Escape from the safe path for a day to enter the unforeseen. It is in those moments in which, when we feel truly lost, the authentic sense of survival is activated in us.

In that disturbing moment we feel more attached to the present than ever. So, we look around us with greater perspective and interest to ask ourselves a decisive question: where do I go from here? The philosopher Walter Benjamin said that only when we lose ourselves are we immersed enough in ourselves to make conscious choices.

The art of knowing how to get lost to accept uncertainty

The philosopher and professor Joan-Carles Mélich explains something interesting to us in his book The wisdom of the uncertain. Restlessness, uncertainty and provisionality are realities that have always been part of the human condition. However, none of this pleases us. We are creatures allergic to what is uncertain, what is different and even what is foreign.

He also invites us to live on the margins of the uncertain, because that is where authentic life happens and we often find the meaning of life by reflecting, discovering ourselves and expanding our mind. Because while others prefer to position themselves in the center (and in the foreseeable), only those who practice the art of knowing how to get lost, learn to think for themselves.

Sometimes, it is worth going beyond what is known and ordinary to us to relativize ideas, goals, thoughts…

The need to go beyond our safe spaces

Getting lost is not venturing into a forest without a compass. It is not climbing a mountain alone. Nor venturing into the ocean in a fit of madness. The art of knowing how to get lost is to overcome our limits to know what lies beyond our daily lives. It means stopping obsessing over wanting to have everything under control to know what is on the other side of the foreseeable.

It implies being able to open ourselves to the uncertain, the novel, which stimulates our imagination and allows us to have new perspectives. Sometimes, in those moments when we don’t really know what to do with our lives and we are hit by the feeling of being lost, is when the most important things happen.

Our existence is not written in a road plan, nor will Google always have the answers to all our questions. It is worth trusting our instincts and adventuring, becoming explorers of the uncertain. Because as Rebecca Solnit herself points out, “He who has never been lost has not yet begun to live.”

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