Beginner’s Mind and the New Year
January 3rd, 2009 |
By Sherry Gaba, LCSW
Click here to contact Sherry and/or see her GoodTherapy.org Profile
Beginner’s Mind
“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but it the expert’s there are few.” ~Zen Master Suzuki Roshi
As I reflect on the New Year, I find myself thinking about the concept from Buddhism “Beginners Mind.” The concept is to put aside old ideas and beliefs and see things as if for the first time. It is about opening up your mind to new possibilities rather than being trapped by old messages and belief systems that no longer serve us. This frame of mind allows us to be open, flexible and non judgmental of ourselves and others and remain teachable.
Often we create New Year’s resolutions as intentions or goals that we want to achieve in the New Year. We take an inventory of the previous year and decide what we would like to improve upon or change whether it is to lose weight, go back to school, become more charitable, re-examine a relationship, quit a job, start a business and the list goes on. That in and of itself is fine, but it becomes a problem when we begin to judge ourselves as bad-good, right-wrong, should-shouldn’t because we did or didn’t do something the previous year. Our judgmental mind takes over and suddenly our self esteem has taken a dip.
What I suggest you do this year when deciding upon your New Year’s resolutions is to make them with profound compassion for yourself and with a beginner’s mind. In other words, be aware and acknowledge your intentions, but don’t get stuck in them. Look at these new goals like a child starting school for the very first time with excitement and anticipation of what is to come and all the possibilities that await you. Don’t criticize yourself for what you haven’t accomplished or that you can’t do something in the New Year, but instead, recognize these opinions are just products of your mind and are not necessarily based on fact. If you chose to make your resolutions absolute without any flexibility or tell yourself you can’t do something, you stifle the process of learning and growing. There may be some other lesson or wisdom that needs to be discovered and can’t be with a judgmental or negative mindset.
Create a gentler space between you and what your old mind is telling you. Take a “I don’t know stance.” In other words, if “I don’t know,” anything and everything is possible in the New Year. All we know are our past impressions of events or circumstance that happened once upon a time. It keeps us out of the present and instead living in the past or future, not allowing new insights to emerge. In beginner’s mind there is no thought “I have attained or not attained something.” Instead we embark on attaining an empty mind that is ready for anything and open to everything allowing us to live completely in the present. There are many goals I set out to achieve last year that were not attained, but I experienced so many more un-expected situations and events that I could not have dreamed of happening. I experienced being on radio, on television, and became a contributing author of a book. However, there were times when I built expectations around those un-foreseen events, and most of the time when those expectations were not met; I caused myself unnecessary anxiety and fear for myself.. So this year I intend on not letting go of my New Year’s Resolution but rather experiencing them with more awareness and purpose, non- judgmentally and in the sacred moment as it unfolds.
©Copyright 2009 by Sherry Gaba, LCSW. All Rights Reserved. Permission to publish granted to GoodTherapy.org. The following article was solely written and edited by the author named above. The views and opinions expressed are not necessarily shared by GoodTherapy.org. Questions or concerns about the following article can be directed to the author or posted as a comment to this blog entry. Click here to contact Sherry and/or see her GoodTherapy.org Profile
I really enjoyed this piece. I love the way it states to “start over as if it’s a new thing” Thanks for the great read.
What an interesting way of looking at things you want to change. I will have to try this way of thinking to my goals.
I have never read too much about the Buddhist way of thinking but this article has inspired me to do more research on the subject. I have always heard that the Eastern philosophies do a much better job of helping us realize our true selves and if much of the teaching matches this manner of teaching then I can certainly see why. How refreshing it will be to look at everything this year as a whole new learning experience rather than always basing our thought on experiences and situations and judgements from the past. I like this.
I realize this will probably take some practice in doing and I plan on at least trying the philosophy of the “I don’t know”. This story is quite an eye opener.
I kinda get this to be a mind over matter thing. We have to want and believe our goals and we need to keep those goals in our minds. Once we focus, I think sooner or later it will happen. Perseverance is the key.
No wonder so many have become converts to the Eastern philosophies. Seems to make a lot of sense.
I love the way Buddhist thinks! I’ve tried this for the past few days, and so far so good. I try not to think about the mistakes or failures I made in the past and just focus on the now.
Interesting concept of thinking…. I will have to check out that book.. I wonder if it’s available online. Would love to read it.
The beginner’s mind seems like the perfect way to begin the new year. maybe we can all forget about the tumultuous year that was 2008 and move on to better and brighter things in 2009.
A religious concept behind the eternal sunshine of the spotless mind eh?
But don’t you think that using the concept of the beginner’s mind may just lead to more and more people going through life with blinders on? That is to say this is kind of the easy way out right? There is no accountability, just a cheerful forgiveness and forgetting of the past. I am not sure my mind is open to that.
I apologize for coming into an already moving blog, but I thought I’d add my little piece. Everything I understand about beginner’s mind is that it’s a frame, a perspective. It’s not like you forget everything you know, it’s that you see through open and awaiting eyes/perspective to have life reveal to you the message(s) it needs you to know and see. Meditation helps because it can help keep your heart & mind open to the aha moment. Often these aha moments allow for forgiveness and acceptance with intelligence–not with blinders on.
Pat I really appreciate that explanation. That helps me out a lot with working that concept out in my mind. I think that the Eastern philosophies help us to remain a little more open minded than the Western thought I have been exposed to all my life.