Working on your open-mindedness helps foster better relationships with others, but not only… The principle? Accept and respect the ideas and opinions of others, never being sure of anything! Open-mindedness would allow for better creativity, better personal resources and a greater capacity for understanding others.

Open-mindedness, according to dictionary definitions describes the attitude of a person “showing great tolerance, showing interest, curiosity and understanding for ideas that differ in part or totally of his own. “

It is therefore being ready to listen to different people, to accept and respect their ideas and points of view, even different from ours. It is respecting the freedom of others, their different attitudes by showing kindness.

Finally, therefore, it is not to be “locked” in certainties: to question oneself, in the face of new encounters and ideas.

It’s examining these new ideas with curiosity and interest, and if we find them relevant, bringing them into our lives.

First of all, we can see the negative effects of a lack of openness:

• little conciliation;
• fear of change;
• Afraid of the unknown ;
• fear of the other and of his ideas;
• certainties firmly anchored in everything;
• intolerance of new attitudes and ideas, etc.

The list is long, and shows how open-mindedness is an essential quality to develop!

Indeed, it promotes creativity and allows you to interact with others in a more beneficial way.

By being more receptive to others and to new environments, we can more easily get out of our daily routine, and accept change. Open-minded people are more humble, able to recognize that they don’t know. In addition, they enrich themselves intellectually by exploring the world and others. It allows them to be imaginative and creative.

Benevolence is also one of the resulting qualities: being open-minded makes someone capable of compassion, of listening to others, of generosity and of solidarity.

All of this naturally leads to great opportunities, whether human, professional or personal! Open-minded people find solutions to their problems more easily, through their openness to the world and their positivity.

Albert Einstein said: “The measure of intelligence is the capacity to change. “

Bolstered by the observation that open-mindedness opens us to a richer and more joyful life, we must find a way to develop it.

The following tips will help you increase your daily openness:

• be curious and attentive;
• engage in discussion with others;
• don’t judge someone you don’t know;
• develop contact with people who think or act differently from you;
• don’t denigrate something you haven’t tried;
• seek to experience the unknown in order to broaden your thinking;
• examine each situation through different points of view;
• visit each month a place you do not know and where you have never been;
• change your route regularly to get to your workplaces, hobbies, friends, family, etc. ;
• taste a dish or find a new restaurant each month that you have never tasted (for example, world cuisine, new associations, but also new places and contexts);
• plan a trip every year (or every two years) to a country that does not seem “fashionable” to tourists;
• have fun starting a new art activity, even if you’re not good at it.

Be careful, however: being open-minded does not mean absorbing everything in any way and by anyone.

Know how to keep a critical mind within yourself, taking a step back from ideas, people and things, but with kindness. Always having recourse to doubt makes it possible not to rush towards any new idea that seems very exciting at first.

Keeping a free conscience to question the possibilities that are offered thus allows to maintain a distance, a vigilance and a necessary distance from the information which arrives to us.

Getting out of your comfort zone is important, without getting too alienated, and all at once. Always be in tune with yourself, also relying on your personal intuition.