21 Apr Openness – a whole new perspective
Openness makes life easier
Whether you are being open and honest with others by sharing your authentic self – your thoughts, your dreams, your fears, your ideas – or whether you are being open and allowing others to do that with you. Life is much easier as long as you also practice wisdom and listen to your instincts by being open and with yourself. Be mindful though that everything in life, everything, requires balance and moderation.
Opening up to others
For some, opening up to others is usually only done, in the real sense of the word, with a handful of trusted people because it often means feeling vulnerable to be truly accepted. Whenever anyone has a deep and meaningful connection with someone else, it provides the opportunity to get to know someone on a deeper level.
One way to remain open to others is to always treat others with courtesy and respect regardless of disagreements or misunderstandings. When you are free with a selected few, it is also vital that you are open to their sharing their perceptions of things with you and sometimes telling you some ‘home truths’ when the occasion requires it. People who love and care for you will fight for you, they will risk telling you things you do not want to hear – for your benefit – which is sometimes hard to take but what you may be thankful for at a later date.
Like everything in life openness also requires giving and taking. When you open up to others, you are allowing them to understand you better. This is one of the best outcomes of opening up to others as understanding is the doorway to unity. There are times in life when relationships are tested – friendships, business partnerships, marriages – be mindful of what part you are playing in the giving and taking. Are you shutting down? Have you closed your mind and shut people out because you do not want to hear what they have to say?
Being open to others
When others open up to you, it is the ultimate compliment. If someone feels that they can talk freely with you, be honest and share with you about what matters to them or why they do the things they do, you link more pieces to the puzzle – of getting to know them on a deeper level. They feel that you are worthy of the trust they are placing in you – so take the compliment in and live up to the trust they placed in you – accept them without judgment. In fact, you are most likely to see strengths in them that you weren’t aware of beforehand. Remember to act with integrity and not share their personal information as it is not yours to share. It is theirs to share with whoever they wish, whenever they decide to.
When you open your heart and mind you grow in numerous ways from each experience. You consider things that you hadn’t previously before, you have a new understanding of why things you may have previously criticised happen. Things happen that you may have never thought possible before – all because you choose to have an open heart or mind.
This is the first thing we must teach our children – to be open to others, especially those that are different from themselves as they are the people that can show you more than those who are similar to you. Being open to others is different from opening up to others. Being open to differences allows children to be curious about our differences and learn that different is excellent, as opposed to different is wrong. This creates an accepting and respectful environment which reduces and could potentially eliminate bullying and other negative behaviours.
Being open to others creates an environment of acceptance, with kindness, thoughtfulness, consideration and many characteristics thrown in. The end result is respect, friendliness and unity.
The downside to openness
While there are many honest, accepting folks in the world, there are also people who do not have your best interests at heart. We’ve all heard about catfishing which is the act of luring someone into an online relationship by pretending to be someone other than themselves by taking on someone else’s persona – real or imagined.
Concerning relationships, whether it be a friendship or a marriage, nobody can come between two people unless someone, one of the parties, allows someone else in so being too open can be detrimental to a relationship such as a marriage.
People who have pure intentions and wants to make the world a better place outweigh the negative people who are more self-interested. Focussing on a characteristic each week helps us to become a better person. The person you want to be, the person you choose to be, the best version of yourself – by living up to what you state you believe in.
The importance of openness
It is essential to teach children about all characteristics so they can make their own judgment calls at every stage of their life by determining when others in their life have their best interests at heart. Being open to others and opening up to others is a two-way process, be wise when considering what you give and what you take in each relationship and also – be kind, be kind, be kind.
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