Becoming more open-minded can help you live an exciting, inquisitive life in which you never stop learning or growing. By making just a few changes to your daily routine, you can open up your mind and say goodbye to your old close-minded ways. If you want to be more open-minded, push yourself to try something new each week.
This will help broaden your mind by exposing you to new situations, perspectives, and ideas. Read on to learn how traveling can help you be more open-minded! Did this summary help you? Yes No. Log in Social login does not work in incognito and private browsers. Please log in with your username or email to continue. No account yet?
Create an account. Edit this Article. We use cookies to make wikiHow great. By using our site, you agree to our cookie policy. Cookie Settings. Learn why people trust wikiHow. Tips and Warnings. Related Articles. Article Summary. Method 1. All rights reserved. This image may not be used by other entities without the express written consent of wikiHow, Inc. If you want to be more open-minded, then the first thing you have to do is embrace something that is completely foreign to you. Go for it.
Method 2. They may hate the other pizza place in town without even setting foot in the door, or they think the vegan movement is completely silly without ever trying it themselves. So, the next time you catch yourself espousing a negative opinion about something, ask yourself what evidence you have to support your ideas. Try researching a subject to learn more about it.
If you find that there is absolutely no evidence to prove your case, then you should try that thing yourself before you say anything else. Method 3. Head out to a party or lunch with a new friend.
Exposing yourself to a wide variety of events will make you more open-minded. Try to accept invitations to different types of events. Just saying yes to party invitations may not necessarily broaden your horizons if you say no to everything else. The next time you say no to something, ask yourself what lies behind this impulse: is this fear of the unknown?
An unwillingness to step out of your comfort zone? The desire to be hanging out in bed in your pyjamas instead of meeting new people? Face the feeling and find a way to fight it. Method 4. Acknowledge that other people have opinions too. You could do this with almost anything in your life: politics, religion, education, personal beliefs, etc. Can you try reading up on other religions, or understanding the reasons why someone might not believe in God at all? Make a list of these reasons and see if it makes it easier for you to understand your differing perspectives.
Method 5. Many close-minded people view things in a negative light. The next time you catch a negative thought crossing your brain—or even the next time one escapes your lips—counter it with a positive thought. It might help to think of 3 positive things for every 1 negative thought you have. This weather sucks.
I love snow. Traveling a lot — or, even better, living for extended periods in foreign cultures — tends to make us more willing to revise our viewpoints. After all, if we know that it is perfectly valid to live a different way than we do, it makes sense that our brains would be better at accepting new approaches to problems at work.
This aligns with recent research on the neuroscience of how storytelling helps us build empathy for other people. Preliminary research is also showing us that practicing mindfulness meditation, learning about the ins and outs of your own ego using a framework like the Enneagram , and learning about Moral Foundations Theory through programs like Open Mind Platform can each help us operate with more intellectual humility.
I was right! You have 1 free article s left this month. You are reading your last free article for this month. Subscribe for unlimited access. Create an account to read 2 more. Start by admitting you might be wrong. Beliefs are also tied to social context.
Perhaps many of the beliefs you hold resemble those of people you are close to. Family can be an important factor in shaping what we think. People come from a wide variety of backgrounds that contribute to highly diverse points-of-view.
Overall, our beliefs are highly personal, and we can often be reluctant to think about things that might go against our current perspectives. However, on e of the keys to keeping an open mind is being open to the possibility that it might be changed by new information. When people think in black and white, they tend to categorize things as all good or all bad.
One way to start thinking in a different way is to consider the middle ground in relation to extremes. This activity requires you to think about common dichotomies in a continuous way.
Rather than looking at two boxes — one black and one white — you had to look at a spectrum, which included shades of grey. The whole point of thinking about the middle ground is to realize that things are often not as extreme as we may think. For the rest of the day, notice whenever you use extreme words. Write down both the word you used and its opposite.
Think about an appropriate middle-ground word. Then mark where you actually fall on this continuum from one extreme to the other. This can help people break away from dichotomous thinking. People often get stuck in closed-minded thinking patterns, such as black-and-white thinking or failing to consider all relevant information.
However, it is possible to increase open-mindedness by consciously reflecting on our beliefs and viewpoints. Actively increasing your open-minded thinking can, in turn, improve your decision-making, problem-solving, and interpersonal relationships.
Next time you find yourself falling into the trap of black-and-white thinking or other cognitive biases, take a step back and think about the three tips provided in this blog post to get more open-minded. Think about the middle ground.
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