Open-mindedness

52 Weeks of Steiner – Week 36  
(This is part of a weekly serial started on Michaelmas 2023. To see the other entries, please see the post linked HERE and scroll down to the bottom for individual links)

We have to distinguish true thinking from the so-called practical thinking, which merely consists in opinions based on the habits of thought in which people have been brought up.“

Rudolf Steiner, Practical Training in Thought
18 January 1909, GA 108

How many of our responses to the world are from habit or imitation? It was Steiner’s intention to help people to see that real thought is not formed out of habit, but out of connection with the other, whether it be a person or an object. That is what these foundational exercises help us to strive towards, clear thought, true thinking.

The fifth of his foundational exercises is open-mindedness, faithfulness or open-heartedness. I feel it is very closely tied to positivity in that we are encouraged to connect or warm to things/events/people but in this exercise we focus on not drawing conclusions based on our past experiences. Let’s take a moment to review positivity and see how it is connected to open-mindedness. (You can review the post for Positivity HERE)

When we dislike something, we typically become immediately closed off. When something negative happens we want to distance ourselves from the experience. Negative experiences and emotions have us pulling away, disengaging, unwilling to come into relationship with the experience through a different lens. We have a coldness or separation towards it.

When we strive for positivity, impartiality or to free ourselves of prejudice thus leading to open-mindedness it helps us to come into relationship with the very thing we have distanced ourselves from. Reaching out into something we dislike or have an aversion to, by discovering more about it, allows us to change our perspective and move from negative to positive. It allows us to warm or connect to what ever it is that has occurred.

Open-mindedness is very similar in that we open ourselves to possibilities and we do so by leaving our prejudice and preconceived notions behind so we can meet each experience with new eyes. We leave space in our hearts for the possibility of belief in even in the most extraordinary occurrences. It is a way to keep open to new experiences, even within the old and seemingly predictable. It is being open to every possibility before coming to our own conclusions.

Let me give you an example.

One day a person allowed their dog to leave a “present” on my fenced in front lawn. They were on their phone, head down the whole time, as their dog on an extend-a-leash wandered into our path and lawn, glancing up only briefly to see why the dog had stopped. I watched from my window as I rocked a wee-one in my arms. My first reaction was anger, but then I paused and attempted to create a list of other possibilities.

• maybe the person was having a bad day and was using their phone as a distraction
• maybe this was the only free, quiet time the person had and so was totally engrossed in disengaging from the world around them as a form of respite
• maybe they are walking the dog for a friend and aren’t aware of the social etiquettes
• maybe they had just read something upsetting and were not paying full attention to what was going on around them
• maybe the dog had already gone and they didn’t bring two bags with them, and ignoring was being used as a form of avoidance
• maybe they came from a country where things like this aren’t a big deal
• maybe they are new dog owners and don’t know it isn’t socially appropriate behaviour
• maybe they really just didn’t care, and is there connection/warmth that can be found in that?

I felt surprisingly calmer after creating the list. The distraction helped I’m sure, but I also started to feel a connection to the other person, even though all my thoughts were only possibilities and not actual facts. The point of the exercise wasn’t to see the rainbow in the poop, because let’s be honest, there isn’t one, but to create a connection and see that there might be another side to the story I refused to see for all the refuse on my front lawn (little word play there because English is weird and wonderful!).

Warmth was created in that list and it helped me change my perspective and become interested in what could possibly be happening, because we can never truly know what someone else is going through. And really, there ARE people who will just not care, and maybe there is something to be admired in a person’s ability to shirk social norms. Maybe not. But to be open means to be open to all possibilities.

This exercise also led me to take action. Dogs poop on my lawn, what can I do about it? Since that day, I have kept a small bag of bags to hand out to those I see in need of one and the reception to my handout has been a beautiful mixture of gratitude, embarrassment, some choice words of anger, and bashfulness when I share that young children play on my lawn and the fence is there to prevent dogs from coming onto the lawn. In taking action I was also able to connect with the other.

It goes deeper than just the list and handing out bags though. I have found that when a particularly difficult incident occurs, or I am leading up to an encounter that I know will be difficult, I am better able to focus on the possibilities, less about myself and previous experiences and more about the other. It provides space for letting go of my current prejudices and perceptions and opens myself up to the unknown. It supports my own ability to see things objectively and consciously and to not respond out of emotional impulse and habit. It helps to balance, as all these exercises are meant to do.

So I encourage you to give open-mindedness a try! Step out of habit responses and connections from the past and really see everything with new eyes. It is very liberating!

Until next time,
Marina