B Is For… Beginner’s Mind!
Welcome back to Day 2 of the A to Z Challenge, Dear Reader, and the letter B!
B Is For… Beginner’s Mind!
What does that even mean?
A beginner’s mind is a curious one. They know they don’t know, and so they stay open to new information, ideas, things, people, places… I could go on. Point is, a beginner is someone who is new, and who knows they are new; because of that knowledge, they become teachable.
When we allow ourselves to be beginners in this way, we give up the need to control the situation. After all, we are beginners, and we aren’t IN control, and so we relax and allow things to happen and unfold naturally. In turn, this allows our stress response to calm down and gives us a chance to experience something without all our preconceived ideas getting in the way.
Sometimes we can sneak into a state of Beginner’s Mind when we move very fast into something. For example, “I think I’ll do the A to Z Challenge.” Rather than stopping and examining the idea, we allow it to take us, and we think, what shall we post for A? and for B? and so on until Z and the challenge is done. By allowing ourselves to be beginners (after all, we’ve never experienced April of 2023 before), we allow ourselves to BE. This “in-the-momentness” allows us to be completely present in the moment, which is where, they say, enlightenment lives.
I love this post! As for *wanting* to be a beginner, I don’t need to concern myself with that. :>) I feel I truly AM a beginner in just about everything! And that’s fine with me.
Thanks for your post.
Wonderful observation. I enjoy being a beginner. I’ve been a beginner in at least a dozen different career paths and hobbies in my life (so far) and I heartily recommend learning on the job!
Thanks for this post. For me, being a beginner means being conscious of my first breath every morning and harnessing the joy of having that breath of life to start my day. Every day.