07 Sep Why Adults Lose The Beginner’s Mind
The natural, exciting curiosity of childhood when our minds are just beginning to open up and develop is something that tends to fade as we get older, but why is this – and how do we get it back? Let’s take a look.
What Is A Beginner’s Mind?
A beginner’s mind, also known as shoshin in Buddhism, refers to the attitude of openness, eagerness, curiosity, and lack of preconception about the world or a particular subject, just as a beginner would.
This is the state of mind that everybody in the human race naturally has when we come into the world, and it’s essential to our cognitive development as children, but it is often socialized out of us with the development of the ego as adults, and the restrictive, limiting beliefs that get instilled in us at home, through the media, and at school.
However, there are ways in which we can undo what we’ve learned and get our beginner’s mind back – and it has several benefits, such as better communication and empathy in relationships, increased creativity, less anger, a deeper understanding of the world, and a more vivid experience of life.
Why Do We Lose The Beginner’s Mind?
Many of us unconsciously lose our beginner’s mind as we grow into adults over time. Here are some of the most common reasons why adults lose the beginner’s mind:
We Feel Pressured To Conform
As we get older, we are often pressured to conform to societal norms and expectations, and people who ask too many questions or dare to be eccentric are often ridiculed and silenced. This pressure to conform can cause us to lose the beginner’s mind.
We Become Experts
Another common reason that we lose our beginner’s minds is that we study up and work to become experts in our field, which can cause us to stop learning and questioning.
We Don’t Expose Ourselves To New Experiences
As we grow up and settle into a routine and gain more responsibilities, such as bills, rent, etc, we tend to have less time for new experiences, and even avoid them so as to not risk being able to fulfill our responsibilities.
We Become Attached To Our Opinions And Beliefs
Another reason that we lose the beginner’s mindset is that we become too attached to our opinions and beliefs. Instead of seeing our opinions as something that can change as we grow and learn, they become a static part of us.
We Are Hyper-focused
Another reason that we lose the beginner’s mind is that we become hyper-focused on one area of our lives, such as work or family life, and don’t leave enough mental room for curiosity and exploration.
We Don’t Feel Safe
If you are in a bad environment, such as a toxic home, school, or workplace, you will not be able to explore properly. The openness of a beginner’s mind is vulnerable by default, so you won’t be able to open your mind if you feel unsafe.
We Are In Toxic Relationships
Toxic relationships can also cause us to lose the beginner’s mind. Constant criticism and abuse will make us doubt ourselves and lower our confidence, which in turn makes it hard to be open to trying new things. Or, we become so consumed by the toxic partner that we forget about our own pursuits.
We Suffer From Anxiety Or Depression
Mental illnesses like anxiety and depression can also cause us to lose the beginner’s mind. A mind that overthinks worries constantly is not going to find it easy to explore new possibilities and take risks, and depression can also affect it because when we are depressed, we may feel like life is not worth living, which makes us uninterested in pursuing new experiences.
We Get Stuck In Our Comfort Zones
There is nothing wrong with being comfortable, but getting stuck in your comfort zones in life can really sacrifice the beginner’s mind, as we become unwilling to try new things and step out of our usual.
Our Brains Change As We Age
As we age, so do our brains, and as they age and change, we can struggle to learn new things as easily as we used to when we were younger. That said, it’s possible, but it will require a little more hard work, especially if you’ve not kept your brain active as you’ve gotten older.
How To Re-ignite The Beginner’s Mind?
If you feel that you have lost your beginner’s mind, don’t worry, there are plenty of things that you can do to get it back. After all, if you had it once, you can have it again! Let’s take a look at how you can re-ignite your beginner’s mind.
Be Willing To Open Your Mind
In order to re-ignite your young brain, you have to embrace an entirely different form of thinking in which you accept that you don’t know the answers to everything. Be willing to open your mind to things that contradict what we teach kids in schools and promote in media.
It can be scary to do this, but it is essential in order to get back to the beginner’s mindset, and even if you make a mistake or two along the way, there will always be a valuable lesson in there somewhere.
Meditate
Meditation can help us in so many ways, from healing the body to cleansing the chakra system, and spiritual growth to mental reset, so it’s great for re-igniting the beginner’s mind. It also helps to re-open our minds because it involves observing our thoughts without judgment and alleviates mental illness.
Change The Way You Talk
We often try to talk with certainty to avoid sounding silly, especially about the things we feel passionate about, but this way of communicating and interacting with others stops us from being receptive to other ideas and information. Instead, you should offer your thoughts as opinions and ideas, rather than facts, and invite others to share theirs with you.
Listen More To Others
Of course, you have your own values and opinions, and that’s great, but in order to grow, you have to listen to the opinions of others. In addition to listening to the people in your life, you should seek out differing opinions in the media and art you consume, too.
When it comes to talking to the people in your life, remember that there is a crucial difference between listening and waiting your turn to speak. Most of us are in such a rush to share our thoughts that it’s just habit not to truly listen, but when you do, even if you don’t like or agree with it, it will still help to broaden your mind and see things from other points of view.
Ask Questions
Questions are a great way to re-ignite your beginner’s mind because it challenges your assumptions and invites new ideas, opinions, beliefs, and information that you may not have heard before, allowing you to explore more of the world around you.
This can also help to get rid of any residual anxiety that can come with feeling like we need to know everything. When we ask questions, we’re letting our subconscious mind know that we don’t know everything, which naturally allows it to expand and become more curious.
Accept That You’ll Get Things Wrong
One of the more challenging parts about cultivating a beginner’s mind is being willing to get things wrong – as we often associate this with failure, and nobody likes to fail. However, it is essential to openness to be willing to get things wrong from time to time and remember that no failure is truly a failure – but rather a chance to learn even more. Understanding that mistakes are the greatest learning opportunities is crucial to achieving an open mind.
Change Your Routines And Rituals
If you want to cultivate a beginner’s mind, it’s important to change your routines and rituals as they can make us rigid and closed off to new things – especially bad habits. We all have things that we need to do on a regular basis, but to stop it’s important to vary your life to avoid habit hardening into restriction.
Try introducing spiritual rituals in order to attract new energy into your life and be flexible and adaptable in your everyday life. Some other ways to change up your routines and rituals include varying your morning and nighttime routines, as well as your exercise routine, taking a new route to work and trying new things on your days off, such as going out for walks and lunch in different places with different people.
Get Into Nature
Finally, try to get more in touch with nature by going out for walks, hiking, and exploring the great outdoors to re-ignite your beginner’s mind. Getting back to nature can restore us in several ways, including giving your mind a reboot and reset back to the way it was when you were younger.
It will help if you touch your skin to the Earth, as well as water – the spiritual element of sensitivity and intuition, and it may also help to spend time with animals, as they are truly open-minded and bare no judgments or grudges.
Conclusion
The beginner’s mind is not something you truly lose. It is a universal state, so although we can be socialized out of it, it is always a part of it, and we can always find our way back to it with a bit of conscious effort.
If you want to renew the way that you see the world, challenge your beliefs, be a more interesting soul, and find new inspiration in life, keep learning, and stay open! Follow our top tips, and have fun!
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