The next concept in our seven-part series is Beginners Mind. This may seem like a strange concept when you first hear it. However, Beginners Mind is having a mindset or attitude of always learning. You are always looking at the world with an attitude of being a continual student. Every experience is savored as if it is the very first time you have ever experienced it. Having this type of mindset is crucial to developing a mindfulness practice.
Traditional Mindset
Our traditional mindset draws off of our past experiences and creates expectations for future experiences. The more we experience something the more we start to formulate judgments and emotions about that experience. For example, the first three days this week during my morning exercise routine my energy level was not as high as it usually is. I felt exhausted just walking to the next piece of exercise equipment. This morning I was going off of my past experience from the previous three days of feeling exhausted during my workout. I was expecting to feel that way again. I was starting to feel frustrated and think I should take the rest of the week off to rest and hope I would feel more energetic next week. However, I decided to go to the gym anyway because I didn’t want to break my routine. I was pleasantly surprised. I had even more energy than I usually do during my workout. The excitement and joy of having the extra energy made the rest of my day seem better.
The traditional mindset had conditioned me to go off of my past experience and expect to feel exhausted during my workout today. It even made me want to take the rest of the week off. However, I experienced something quite different that made the rest of my day better. I had a past experience, I started to have certain expectations and emotions, and I started to make judgements.
Having the traditional mindset has its advantages and place in our lives. Without it we couldn’t function in society. We wouldn’t be able to drive a car, operate a computer, or do our jobs. Each of these activities requires skills we have learned and developed over time. Yet having preconceived notions about how things are going to go, closes us off to experiences that can be quite wonderful. This would have been the reality if I had acted on my impulse to skip working out for the rest of the week.
Benefits of Beginners Mind
The benefit of having beginners mind is being open to new experiences. We understand we are learning and approach new situations without any fear. This is one of the rare times our minds are actually quiet. We have no expectations of what is going to happen. Having no expectations gives us a clean slate to have the experience. Our minds can’t chatter away about what has happened in the past and what might happen in the future. Having this kind of freedom and purity of thought can open many doors in our lives. We just have to be willing to look at everything as a learning opportunity that can better our lives in some way.
Beginners Mind and Mindfulness
Mindfulness and beginners mind are interconnected. Dr. Jay Winner MD says they are the same thing in his article “Beginners Mind” in the November 5, 2008, issue of Psychology Today. I tend to look at beginners mind a little differently. I see it as a tool that allows us to quiet our minds and be in the present moment. Which is exactly the goal of mindfulness. I see it as a tool because it is just one aspect of mindfulness. There are six other characteristics that make up mindfulness as a whole. Developing beginners mind is not hard. It is an attitude of openness and learning. Approaching life with the intent to not be judgmental about our experiences, makes developing beginners mind easy.