Openness
In previous blog posts, I have already addressed how an individual is ultimately free and responsible, how empathy is central to life purpose, and now I address the concept of openness.
Openness is a cognitive opening to possibilities, an emotional opening to one’s experiences (inner and outer; personal and social), and a spiritual opening to our deepest inner strivings and sacred sources of rejuvenation and meaning. Below I describe each of these areas (cognitive, emotional, and spiritual openness).
In developing cognitive openness, you become a critical thinker. As humans, we hold multiple perspectives in ourselves. Therefore, we must develop the capacity to make sense of the perspectives. Additionally, we can remain open to competing perspectives in those around us. Being able to think through ideas and possibilities is so important when seeking purpose in life and work. Many times in society, there is a rush or pressure to choose a conclusion. "Make a choice already!" you might hear. Additionally, there is a pressure to choose THE right answer. What if, when it comes to purpose and meaning, there is no one right answer? What if there are multiple answers? Opening yourself up cognitively requires you to delay your confidence and/or commitment in one path. It requires you to reflectively and thoughtfully consider each possibility with openness.
Some may believe that not making a choice is indecisiveness. Perhaps delaying a choice is really wanting to think something through before feeling confident and ready to choose. Additionally, it may be part of your personality to want to continue to receive more information before you make a choice (to be discussed in a future post in this blog). Finding a purposeful path in life and work does not normally come quickly. A purposeful path is also not a path that is found once and the decision making is over. There may be factors outside of our control that force us to explore new possibilities, such as the death of a loved one, being let go from a job, divorce, etc. Overall, how we live our purpose continues to morph and change throughout life, so openness is essential.
Openness as an emotional process relates, in many ways, to our discussion in the previous blog post on empathy. Remaining open to how we feel and how others feel, without judgement, is so important if we want to allow ourselves to come to a deeper understanding of ourselves and our choices. Deep emotional understanding allows us to discern important elements of a meaningful path in life and work.
It may be difficult to remain open to difficult emotions inside of us. Some may have developed patterns in their family that certain emotions are safe and others are unsafe. For example, expressions of anger may be acceptable in some families while showing sadness or fear is not. You likely have traditions that influence your inner acceptance of emotions. Working to embrace your inner emotional experience more fully is difficult, but worth it. When we shut ourselves off to certain challenging parts of ourselves, we shut ourselves off to sources of guidance, self-awareness, and meaning. If it is a challenge to remain open to certain emotions by yourself, consider working with a counselor or a coach to work through your emotions.
As for spiritual openness, spirituality is unique to everyone. For some, it is interconnected with religion and/or faith. For others, spirituality is a deeply personal experience that does not relate to religion or faith. I'll talk more about spirituality later in this blog, but for now spiritual openness means that we allow ourselves to open up to a source of sacred direction that is bigger than ourselves. Perhaps you believe that source comes from deep within you or from a being outside of you. Either way, source is important. Opening up to a spiritual source requires humility. It requires believing in something or someone who has purpose to dawn upon us. Spiritual openness is a practice. It is a mindset. It is a way of being. It requires a foundational trust. It leads to an openness that life purpose unfolds one step at a time. This idea may not connect for all, but for those that are drawn to the information in this section, you may take time to consider this area in more depth. You may want to ask, "am I allowing the sacred source of transcendent meaning the space it needs in my life?"
Overall, I believe it is, once again like empathy, impossible to find purpose in life that really transforms if we remain closed off to our inner lives, to others, and to new possibilities. If I am unable or unwilling to remain engaged in life when I am uncomfortable with competing possibilities, I will likely miss out on meaningful experiences in life. I might create a comfortable, but suffocating life circumstance. Yes, safe can be comfortable, but comfortable can also be deadening. Moving towards life purpose often requires you to take a risk, or to take multiple risks. These risks are not meant to be unhealthy or to be taken without being thoughtful. But if I cannot remain open enough to life and the possibilities it brings to me, I may drift through life, missing the potential of greater life purpose.
I encourage you to find practices that work for you in helping you develop openness because openness expands life and creativity. The practices could include journaling, guided meditations, working with a coach or counselor, reading new books, applying for a new job, trying one new recipe each week, or going to a new place in town. Whatever it is, the core principle is to consider and engage in a new possibility because doing so can start a pattern of being more open to life. Engaging in these new explorations is not meant to be comfortable. It will likely push you out of your comfort zone and it may be scary, but life and work become infused with greater purpose when you are willing to openly respond to life.
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