‘Be willing to be a beginner every single morning.’ – Meister Eckhart
Having a ‘beginner's mind’ simply means that you engage with other people, events, objects and activities as if for the first time.
Usually, what you do, how you think and how you feel are based on past experience, beliefs, judgements and conclusions. But when you do things the same way and take the same route as you have done before, when you stick to your habitual ways of thinking and responding to events and other people, you miss all sorts of possibilities, discoveries and insights. You are taking a narrow path that makes it less likely that you will come across new ideas and ways of seeing and understanding.
Rather than respond to events, experiences, places and other people in the same old ways – ways from the past – beginner's mind encourages you to take a new perspective and to respond to things as they are right now.
Beginner's mind doesn't dismiss or devalue your past knowledge and experience. It simply suggests you keep an open mind on how to apply your experience to each and every situation.
Beginner's mind can help you to slow down, to experience life in the present moment, because you are looking to notice something new in a situation. It puts you in the here and now because you have a heightened awareness to what's happening right now.
This makes life interesting and fresh. It keeps you alert, aware and keen to learn.
