Hopefully, you understand the importance of an open mind. However, it can be difficult to be completely open-minded all the time.
Here are three challenges you are likely to face when trying to be open-minded, and how to overcome them:
1. Humility
Humility is necessary for suppressing any ego that you may possess and in order to fundamentally understand that you do not know everything, and quite frankly, you never can. On the surface, this may seem obvious and is quite easy to accept. However, this becomes much harder for the majority of people when it comes to interactions with a person much younger than you.
Before the younger person has even opened their mouth, you have already assumed that they can’t possibly teach you anything new. This is very common amongst adults… ALL adults, not just elderly people. The underlying assumption is that less age means less experience, and conversely, more age implies more experience. But is this true? In about 99% of cases, yes, it is probably true. But if life has taught me anything, it is to never underestimate the power of the one percent! There is always a chance that the younger person may be wiser and more mature than you may have thought, and likewise, the older person may not be as full of wisdom and valuable life experience.
The percentages are a joke of course (I have no idea what the actual probabilities would be), but my point, and my advice, is this:
In any interaction that you have with anyone, regardless of age, you should treat them with the same respect because you acknowledge that every human is different and experiences life differently. Hence, there is always a chance that you both can learn something new!
2. Societal Pressure
Society has a way of moulding open-minded adolescents into closed-minded adults who blindly adhere to specific societal norms. Consequently, whenever you have an idea that does not align with society’s expectations, you will be met with immense societal pressure to instead conform. This pressure may arise internally (as in, your own consciousness pushing you to follow what everyone else does) or externally (as in, someone literally tries to convince you to conform and follow what is the norm).
This may seem a bit abstract, so allow me to try to illustrate using a couple of examples that should hopefully be relatable.
Example 1: Women and Body Image
If you are a woman, you are probably familiar with the notion that you have to have a thin “hourglass” figure in order to be considered beautiful. Oh, and you also need perfect skin, hair, nails, brows, lashes and some sort of make-up routine. On a basic level, this should promote good nutrition, exercise, and skin care – which is actually a good thing. But it is not lived on a basic level!
The problem is, that it is not experienced as a choice. You feel as though you MUST have these things. As a result, women, young girls especially, tend to seek out anything that will help them to achieve these body goals set out by society. This is where the fad diets and weight loss/beauty products promising quick and amazing results, become popular. Unfortunately, most of these things are not healthy and carry harmful side-effects… which the advertisers obviously do not want to tell you about. What is even sadder is that failure to meet such ridiculous body and beauty standards, often results in feelings of inadequacy and low self-esteem which take a toll on mental health.
Example 2: Men and Emotions
The opposite is true for men when it comes to body image. We are taught that we must be big and strong in order to be considered a “real” man. While this can lead to its own problems for those who don’t conform and for those who go overboard with the idea, I want to focus on an even more egregious male stereotype. Yes, I am talking about men and emotions ( or lack thereof).
Specifically, men are not allowed to express their emotions due to fears of being perceived as weak. As a result, men generally keep their emotions bottled up. But, as I have learnt the hard way having struggled with depression, this suppression of emotions and feelings is incredibly detrimental to one’s mental health. I do not want to get too much into it in this post, but I believe this is why global suicide rates (according to the WHO) are significantly higher for males. I was fortunate to only have a few years’ worth of unresolved feelings and emotions to deal with, but I cannot even begin to fathom having to deal with a whole lifetime of them.
My foolish advice:
Regarding body image: Whether you’re a man or a woman, I think you should instead just aim to have a healthy lifestyle (unless you enjoy being sick). Once you’re healthy, your weight and how your body looks, shouldn’t really matter.
Regarding, men and emotions: Admittedly, this is hard to work on by yourself (accepting that you need help in the first place might be even harder). If you struggle with this, I recommend that you try to find at least one person in your life that you can openly discuss things that may be troubling you. If this is not possible, perhaps engage in writing or some form of artistic expression, and work through your thoughts and emotions in this way. Alternatively, allocate some alone time for quiet introspection and try to resolve things internally- but again, this is very difficult to do without prior experience.
There are numerous other societal norms of varying degrees that exist globally, regionally, nationally, or just within small social groups. Generally, I want you to be able to identify these in your life and consciously determine whether or not you agree with them. If you disagree, you may not be able to change them immediately, but recognizing them is the first step.
3. Personal decision-making
One of the biggest challenges (and risks) of being truly open-minded is that you are required to constantly be deciphering what is true and what is false. This is where the concept becomes very subjective and is completely dependent on your own judgement, moral compass, and life views. This is why I like to make it very clear that I share my truth on this blog, and I encourage you to find your own truth- which may be similar, or completely opposite, to mine. Additionally, being open-minded naturally makes you more impressionable, so with weak or poor judgement, you can end up becoming gullible- be wary of this.
My advice:
If you don’t trust your own judgement, then you’re probably better off letting society make decisions for you. But, assuming that society has provided you with a basis for making good judgement (perhaps through some form of religion), I think you will be fine. As you make good judgements and learn more, you improve the foundation of knowledge by which you make judgements in the future. Thus, it creates a cycle which repeatedly improves decision-making and accumulates knowledge and wisdom over the course of your lifetime!
Do you agree with what I have said? Are there any other challenges in trying to be open-minded that I missed? Do you want to discuss any other controversial societal norms? Any and all thoughts, let me know in the comments down below or through my contact form!
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