SERIOUSLY SPEAKING
School systems and families sometimes operate from the belief that we are supposed to know everything.
So before exams we memorize material and then forget it as we hand in our paper…
Because we need our A+ and don’t want to appear stupid we often are afraid to ask questions and admit that something makes no sense to us.
Remember the “Emperor’s New Clothes”? read the story
An opportunity to experiment with some fun ideas...
So, we think we are supposed to know everything and when we don’t we feel:
Stupid
Incompetent
Wrong
Frightened
Make things up (sometimes known as lies…)
Get angry
Block out new information
Talk very loud
Whisper
Imagine if it were okay to not know…
For a moment – don’t worry – only for a moment - pretend you don’t know anything! Imagine yourself back at age 3… Your eyes are big and everything strikes you as new – unknown – intriguing…
Imagine that your 3 year old world is totally safe, judgment and bully free. You don’t know the names of everything – maybe you make some of them up…
How do all these new things look? Smell? Feel?
If we give up the belief that we have to know everything … sometimes we discover wonders.
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I tried the experiment you suggested, and I felt calmer, more at peace, and not necessarily more confident in my OWN abilities, but confidant the world is not out to get me, which I figure is a lot of fear based fiction to begin with. The power of innocence for a jaded New Yorker! Thanks for that!
ReplyDeleteJT