From Hartley pg xxxv she writes about "Beginner's Mind." Please read this and then look for 3 places in your life your could use some beginners mind and find 3 places you already have a beginners mind relationship with it.
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I could use some beginner's mind with relationships. I feel I have a lot of baggage with the way I think of relationships and it would do me good to start with a clean slate.
ReplyDeleteI could use beginner's mind in learning how to carry myself, in my posture. I have many old, harmful habbits which I need to get rid of for my physical and mental wellbeing. I need a beginner's mind to start learning to hold myself better.
I would love to have more of a beginner's (child's) view of the world. I often don't see the world for all of it's beauty because I have become used to it. I would like to relearn how to fully appreciate each sensation.
I have a beginner's mind relationship with the piano. I am learning. The process of learning is so concrete and so satisfying. I constantly observe myself improving.
I am a beginner in the Spanish language. Like the piano I have so much to learn and every step I make in learning more makes me feel good.
I have a beginner's mind about meditation. I feel there is such a vast amount that I don't understand. I am just barely scratching the surface and am thrilled and overwhelmed by the possibilities.
Beginners mind for me is my relationship with art- I feel fresh and inventive with art (even if I get stuck in my same brush strokes or similar patterns) and it really is about where energy moves through me clearly- more freely. I need to use the beginners mind with parenting and stress. I am repeating thoughts and actions which go against what my heart- mind believes or desires. I would like to experience more fluidity in my mind and spine.
ReplyDelete-I could also definitely use beginner's mind in relationships. I have emotionally painful memories of past relationships; pain which I could have avoided.
ReplyDelete-Beginner's mind would better my self-confidence as I tend to view all of my actions as insignificant. New perspective would allow me to realize and learn that each individual is vital to a community. In the same regard, I could learn how to take a compliment.
-I wish I had a beginner's mind when it came to the power to say no. I tend to say yes to everyone and because of this, I spread myself thin. I wish I could relearn how to say yes to the important things in life.
-I have a beginner's mind with music. I am astonished by what my voice teacher has to offer me, and I love listening to him talk about vocal pedagogy. I love being taught new riffs on the guitar, and I am beginning to see how open some people are when it comes to teaching me what they know.
-I have a beginner's mind in dealing with stress. I have looked into meditation and yoga and have started to realize the power of both in terms of decreasing my anxieties.
-I also have a beginner's mind when it comes to writing. I feel that my voice has just started to sound more natural and my writing has begun to read more eloquently.
I have a beginner's mind when I cook. I always try new things and I'm never afraid to try weird combinations of food, like sauerkraut in an omelette.
ReplyDeleteI find that I have a beginner's mind when I learn something completely new, that I don't know much about to start out with. For example I took a sea kayaking class last spring and I found it easy to approach the new techniques with an open mind because I didn't know much about sea kayaking.
I have a beginner's mind whenever I travel. I never know what to expect, and somehow naturally I approach it almost like a child. There are infinite possibilities in what there is to experience somewhere unknown.
I sometimes do not have a beginner's mind when it comes to school work and writing in particular. I feel the urge to stay within the boundaries that were drilled into my head for all of those years.
I wish I had more of a beginner's mind when it comes to using my body. Whether it is just from moving in alignment throughout the day or in modern dance class when I learn new moves. I find myself stuck in the same repetitive positions.
I could have a more beginner's mind when trying new things, even though I love to. I sometimes feel very comfortable once I set into a rhythm in my life, and trying new things changes that.
I could use beginner's mind in organization and cleaning, especially in my bedroom. half of me doesn't care about clutter or organization and is saying, "just leave it messy, it'll just get messy again," and the other half of me knows it would be good for my psyche to have less clutter, but I just can't get the motivation. i think i need to look at it differently, as exciting, or just get rid of the majority of my belongings...
ReplyDeletei sometimes don't have a beginner's mind, when i am seeing the same thought patterns relating to time spent with my boyfriend--trying to designate alone time. i try to use my mind to decide but that doesn't work.
I also could use a different approach to exercise. for some reason i have an aversion to group activity...being part of team. it makes me feel pressured, even if i'm on a team with my friends...and i also have an aversion to gyms. this leaves me with few options, and i think i need to re-evaluate.
i do have a beginner's mind in the way i look at the world. i'm always looking at the people around me and noticing my surroundings at the present moment for whatever they are
for that matter, i feel like i have a beginner's mind even in interacting with people. i'm very accepting and interested in what people have to say, and what they are doing. sometimes i even get caught up so much in what someone is saying that i feel like i'm totally in agreement with them, when really i'm just momentarily dropping my own values and ideas.
in the last couple years i sort of restarted my approach to my classes and have much more of a beginner's mind than i used to in terms of what i'm learning. everything is exciting and valuable, and i appreciate my education much more now.
I find that when I am learning something new it is, of course, much more natural for me to approach it with a beginners mind. It's only once I have become well familiar with it that this awareness fades away into boredom. So like surfing a wave, how do I stay connected to the curling lip, the edge where there is focused energy and flow. It seem like it's a shift in the quality of how I approach something, not so much the process or content.
ReplyDeleteI have a strong sense of a beginners mind (and body) with aikido right now.
When I travel solo, I so often feel like a child again; what novel, unknown land will my feet tread for the first time. I feel so aware of and open to the small, but profound effects of my newfound environments; subtle offerings that so lyrically conduct the melody of my journey. I am traveling through some great symphony that is emergent from the moment.
Cooking with other people and whatever food happens to be around at the time (or is given by the dumpsters) really brings out my beginners mind with cooking. It helps me loosen my attachment to things being "just so."
When I first surfed a wave (well actually the whitewater), awkwardly lying down on the board. I remember feeling floored, "oh so this it what surfing is!" But then at some point I got a ride standing up and then I knew it, that I had truly discovered surfing. It wasn't until I really felt what it was like to be connected, gliding in the smooth green water below the edge of the breaking lip that I realized that everything before had just been something else, but now, now I was REALLY surfing. And so it went and still goes with the ocean and me; always discovering a more refined definition and edge of felt sense.
I would appreciate more of a beginners mind when it comes to making music. Often I get myself stuck not knowing what to learn next, or feeling bound my musical rules that I don't fully understand.
When I create things out of wood and metal and whatever else, I often feel restrictively attached to a traditional sense of aesthetic, form and function. While I feel this often guides me towards making things that are of good quality, it also snuffs a lot of my potential creativity.
I would love to see people more often with a childlike beginners mind!
My beginners mind is very apparent right now as I transition into a radically different living space than I have ever been used to. I am living with 11 other people and there is a strong sense of community. I am having to learn all the systems of the house (which seem to be many) and there are very few movements in the house that I can perform like a pro.
ReplyDeleteI am still pretty jerky in my motions with my sewing machine and it is obvious that I have not practiced enough to just let my mind wander while I work.
When I spar I have to continuously create new movements and patterns. I think this is a hybrid of knowing exactly how to do each move, but having to use my beginners mind to mix it all up into something that will work for the situation.
Sometimes I find that my dancing gets repetetive, and if I brought a beginners mind to that it could be a lot more interesting and fun.
I would like more of a beginners mind when it comes to life in general. I walk by people without noticing them, I hear sounds without thinking about them, I walk to classes without even realizing how I suddenly got there.
I need to learn to have a beginner's mind when it comes to my snowboarding practice. This weekend I'm going for the first time in awhile, but I know that within the first two runs I'll be riding like I did many years ago. I want to learn to let go and become awkward and jerky again. I want to learn to ride switch, and in order to do that I must be willing to fall, get back up, and make mistakes before I can sail down the sea of snow. I need a beginner's mind when it comes to cooking. I tend to cook what I know, and cook the same things because I know how to not screw it up. I need a beginner's mind when listening to the sounds of nature. I tend to focus on one thing and forget my peripheral sense.
ReplyDeleteI have a beginner's mind in my intimate relationship. We broke up for almost three years and recently got back together. Everything is new and different. I am able to listen to him and hold space for him in a way I never knew I could before.
I have a beginner's mind with letting go expectations of others. Recently I have noticed that less is more. And doing is receiving.
I have a beginner's mind when dealing with my father. I try my best to listen and experience him as a person instead of a parent and suddenly all is anger has become a shield of pain and all I want to do is hug him.
I would like to have more of a beginners mind in listening to my body's needs lately. My growing baby needs me to rest more often but I keep ignoring this and pushing forward with school work and other life things.
ReplyDeleteI would like to have more of a beginners mind with my relationship to the natural world. There is so much to be in awe of and since I moved to town I'm noticing myself tuned out more often then not.
I would like to have more of a beginners mind while listening to my closest friends process their experiences. Too often lately I feel like my experience is clouding over really hearing their needs.
I am learning to have a beginners mind while dancing. Since being pregnant my body does not move the same. Every time I fall too much into the music rather then tuning into my body, I find myself attempting to move the way I did a few months ago and it doesn't work. Sometimes when I dance I feel so awkward. I am learning to really feel into my movement again and continually find a new dance. It is humbling.
I have a beginners mind in terms of my exploration of my bodies discomfort. I am finding that by spending time on the floor expressing my body's needs, (stretching, arching, and rolling), I can ease so much of the muscular discomfort that I've been feeling. Its so satisfying and quite empowering.
I have a beginners mind in terms of what it feels like to be pregnant. I'm not sure how one couldn't b/c it is always changing. It is crazy amazing.