Does life seem dull? 🥱
Like, you’ve already “heard it, seen it, and know it”?
Same people, same stories, same environments, and the same advice. 🔄
It can make one feel bored and uninterested in life.
It’s not like when we were children, full of energy and excitement, and the world was our playground.
Things are different now. 🙄
We’re different now.
We experienced life for so many years.
We’ve felt things, seen things. 👀
Maybe we’ve become desensitized.
But, what if we could turn that around?
What if we could return to that child-like state? 🥳
There’s a concept in Zen Buddhism used to describe this mindset where everything is new and interesting.
It’s called “Shoshin“, which translates to “Beginner’s Mind.“
The idea is about having an attitude of openness, eagerness, and a lack of preconceptions.
Basically, dropping all expectations and seeing things with fresh eyes—an open mind—just like a beginner would. 🧠
Think about the last time you learned something completely new.
You probably had no idea what to do or how to do it. You were likely confused but yet filled with curiosity to understand things.
You can also think about the last time you traveled somewhere new for the first time. ✈️
You paid close attention to everything and noticed different textures, smells, and sights. The environment was alive. You were filled with wonder.
There was a genuine sense of novelty.
This is the Beginner’s Mind.
But, how is this useful in our everyday lives? 🤔
Why would anyone want to abandon what they know about the world, even for a moment?
Aren’t things better with knowledge, expertise, and understanding?
Life experience is indeed a wonderful thing, but knowledge and expertise can also be a curse – narrowing your mind and preventing you from seeing clearly.
The Beginner’s Mind is important because it helps you cultivate deeper insights, have greater gratitude, joy, creativity, playfulness, and overall to have better life experiences and relationships. 👍
To practice Beginner’s Mind, one needs to slow things down to identify their expectations and to drop their preconceived judgments.
Replace statements such as “I know” with basic questions like “how” and “why”.
Life is supposed to be an adventure.
It’s temporary, fleeting, and precious. ⏳
With the Beginner’s Mind, we learn to bring fresh perspectives to things we’ve seen.
We open the doors to new possibilities. 🚪
And, most importantly, we learn not to take anything for granted.
“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.”— Marcel Proust