How to open your mind? Keys to adopting new perspectives

Having a flexible mindset to see reality differently is key to managing change.

Many years ago, Albert Einstein said: "the mind is a parachute, it only works when it opens". The question is whether we can develop positively as people with a closed mindset.

Throughout this article we will talk about how to open the mindand the importance of open-mindedness and the benefits of being open to change.

The flexible mindset

It is obvious that living life with an open mind can provide us with numerous benefits and advantages, both in terms of experiencing positive emotions and perceiving and taking advantage of the countless opportunities that come our way.

Keeping an open mind is essential for personal wellbeing and stress management, as well as to help us achieve our life goals and maintain a good relationship with the rest of society. and stress management, as well as to help us achieve our life goals and maintain a good relationship with the rest of society. Ultimately, it is our ability to adapt cognitively and emotionally to those changes in life that we cannot remain impassive to, living with our old habits and mental shortcuts.

Although the concept of "open-mindedness" refers to a personality trait, it can be trained and developed through different techniques and steps, helping us to be more open to change, flexible and understanding.

In the workplace, having an open mind is extremely useful in jobs that require creativity or are related to science and research. On the other hand, in our day-to-day lives, keeping an open mind helps us to live without prejudice. helps us to live without prejudice.

6 steps to open our mind

As mentioned above, although open-mindedness is a personality trait, it is susceptible to be exercised and improved, thus bringing us several benefits both personally, socially and professionally.

Below we will see a series of techniques or methods that can help us to develop open-mindedness.

1. Practicing listening

Listening to other people provides us with a great deal of information about our surroundings and, most importantly, provides us with other points of view about life that can give us another perspective on certain aspects of our world.

However, listening does not mean hearing. This listening has to be active, eliminating our prejudices and allowing other people to express their opinions. Always with respect on both sides.

2. Questioning things and ourselves

This includes both what surrounds us and our own beliefs. Maintaining a critical stance with ourselves and with what surrounds us is fundamental to develop open-mindedness, since this does not imply that we have to blindly accept what is around us. does not imply that we have to blindly accept or believe everything around us..

People tend to assume as true what is transmitted to us by the media or society, as well as not to question what we have always believed in.

However, in order to develop and maintain an open mind it is necessary that, from time to time, we reflect and question our own decisions, beliefs and customs, as well as the information we receive from other media.

3. Get out of the comfort zone

We tend to stay in places or situations where we feel safe, where there are no risks and where unforeseen events occur as infrequently as possible. unforeseen events occur as infrequently as possible..

In this way, the person maintains a routine without contingencies or shocks, but also without incentives or motivations, and with the risk of developing a dependence on that which provides us with this security.

This is called "comfort zone" and although it is positive to a certain degree, we should not settle into it. A good way to get out of our comfort zone is to making small changes and actions and actions that will help us to get out of it little by little.

These small changes will lead to bigger changes and little by little we will get used to live new experiences that will help us to develop other perspectives of everything that surrounds us and to expand the vision of our reality.

4. Don't be afraid to be different

This step is closely related to the previous two. Assuming as your own the customs and behaviors that society imposes on us, will not help us to develop openness.will not help us to develop open-mindedness.

To get rid of them, the first step is to eliminate the fear of being different from the rest, as well as to remove the importance of what other people may think of us.

5. Do not be afraid of mistakes

As soon as we decide to leave our comfort zone and open our minds to other beliefs or life experiences, we must accept that it is possible that we may make mistakes at many points in our lives.

However, this should not be a barrier to improving our well-being. Being wrong gives us the opportunity to learn from our mistakesThese lessons will help us to develop and grow as more complete people.

Therefore, it is necessary to get rid of the fear of being wrong. For it is impossible to develop an open mind if fear conditions us to think and act.

6. Open ourselves to what surrounds us

The world around us, people, things, nature, can serve as a stimulus and inspiration for us to think and act. serve as a stimulus and inspiration for any area of our lives..

Learning from other people and cultures will provide us with new ideas and points of view that can serve us in the future. And doing so on an ongoing basis will help us to keep an open mind and enjoy our lives much more.

Benefits of keeping an open mind

Once we are aware of what we want to achieve and the steps or techniques we need to follow to achieve it, we can begin to enjoy all the benefits that an open mind can provide.

Among the advantages of open-mindedness are the following:

• Ability to enjoy life to the fullest.
• Greater productivity and excellence at work.
• Ability to assume changes and to carry them out satisfactorily.
• Improve the quality of our relationships.
• To be attentive to new opportunities..
• Ability to solve problems more easily.