Open and Receptive Mind: The First Step towards Healing

What would put an end to our problems? How can I heal myself? These questions inevitably plague in our lives minds.

I may not know of a single cure-all solution for all problems of life, mind, body, and soul, but I know for sure what is required to effectively kick-start a healing process, to put us on our path to resolving our problems.

The one essential pre-requisite for healing is an open and receptive mind.

Once we have acknowledged our problems and once we have decided to work on it, we begin to look around for an effective solution for our problem. But we never realize the biggest hinderance to resolving issues is our narrow minded approach and defensive behavior.

All of our issues have roots in the past and it requires an extraordinarily open mind to explore those roots. Sometimes we are presented with theories and connections that appear impossible. Sometimes we are given advice that appears mundane. But if we do not reject those ideas and consider them with a receptive mind, we will find revealing truths and hidden treasures.

Let me give a simple example:
Suppose you are suffering from low self-esteem and your friends tell that most of your thoughts are biased and you see only negative aspects of yourself in every event. Your first instinct is to simply reject that thought.

But if you were to consider the truth in that advice and try to assess it in a real situation, you will find that you are indeed biased in self-assessment. In fact, you have made ‘biased self-assessment’ a framework from which you always operate. And it is from this vantage point that you even reject friend’s advice in the first place.

But by receiving this idea and moving beyond the self-imposed framework, you would have achieved three benefits:

You would have discovered your self-inhibiting framework.
You would have made a correct initial diagnosis for the problem.
And by merely being aware of this framework, you can always reject your first instincts to criticise yourself and re-assess your performance in any event.
Thus you would have started breaking down the problem methodically and effectively.

A decision to be open and receptive, and being watchful in implementing that decision is the most effective and least painful route to healing.