How to Exercise an Open Mind

People can have minds that are well trained, sharp and knowledgeable but still be closed minded when it comes to people. The most important part of exercising an open mind is acceptance of other people, ideas and respect for our differences as humans. Practice these simple ideas and experience the joy and fulfillment of an open mind.

Difficulty:

Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. Make every situation a chance to learn something new. Start thinking of your "beliefs" as "ideas" instead. Beliefs are hard to change since they seem pre-existing and unchangeable, but ideas can be altered, molded, added upon and improved. No one has it all figured out so all we can do is improve upon the things we already know.

2. Get to know your neighbors. Whether they're across the street or in the apartment next to you, try to figure out who's been making those weird noises late at night or the purpose of those strange lawn ornaments littered about. You learn the most from new people and you don't have to travel far to experience new ideas.

3. Stop talking so much and start listening to people. Ask questions and encourage discussion on important topics like faith, politics and hobbies despite the social rules about avoiding them. Always challenge your mind to wrap around tough new ideas because this exercises it and improves it.

4. Kill that little voice inside you that tells you're always right. Somewhere along the line people stopped caring about learning new ideas and started obsessing about winning little arguments throughout the day--people will even argue when they know they're wrong, just to win. For as Edward de Bono said, "The need to be right all the time is the biggest bar to new ideas."

5. Volunteer for people with disabilities, youth or anyone in need. This makes the company you keep diverse and this is a great tool for opening the mind and keeping it that way. There's a lot of people in the world with different perspectives than your own and when you learn about them you exercise an open mind.

6. Put away your Springsteen and Dylan records, old people, and pick up a Coldplay or Kanye West CD. Young people do the same but flip it. It's rewarding when you learn about other people's issues at particular times and music helps deliver this.

7. Become book smart--not just magazine smart or nutrition label smart. Finish reading a publication beyond the morning news. Complete a book that you started long ago or if you've never started a book then start off with something easy like Calvin & Hobbes--it's smart and funny and can get you rolling into another book.

8. Fail--a lot. If you're trying a lot of new things to exercise your mind, then you're probably going to be failing at a lot of things and this is okay. Failing isn't a waste of time since it teaches you what doesn't work and opens your mind to what will work.