How to ​Adopt a Beginner’s Mind​ to  

Improve Learning and Creativity 
Scott Jeffrey

How often do you get stuck in a pattern of doing the same things day after day? Do you
frequently think the same thoughts? Maybe you ruminate on the same old story lines? Are
haunted by indecision on the same problems? Do you hit up against the same resistance to
getting something done?

Consumed by various cognitive biases and limiting belief systems, your range of
possibilities can quickly shrink to a restrictive few. In this state, you have virtually no
creativity to access. Even though you may not realize it, your world gets relatively small.

Why is this phenomenon common and what can you do to break this pattern?

The Gift of Divergent Thinking 
In his popular TED Talk, ​Do Schools Kill Creativity?​ as well as his ​Changing Education
Paradigms​, creativity expert Sir Ken Robinson sheds light on a primary source of our crisis
in creativity. Robinson explains that ​divergent thinking​—the ability to see many possible
answers to a question—is a fundamental attribute of creativity.

One way researchers evaluate divergent thinking in individuals is by the number of

answers they give to questions like, How many uses are there for a shoe? Or how many
uses can you think of for a paper clip?

Most people might offer 10 to 15 answers; others can divine closer to 200. Psychologists
classify these latter folks as geniuses at divergent thinking.

The Decline of Genius 
In a ​study​, 1,500 participants received these types of questions. All of the participants were
around five-year-olds. How many of them scored at the genius level? A whopping 98
percent!

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The researchers tracked these same students fives years later. Now, only 32 percent scored
as high. Then, another five years later, now at age 15, only 10 percent reached the genius
level. Approximately 200,000 adults took the same test.

How many scored at the genius level? A paltry 2 percent.

This research is a wake-up call for those of us who have children, but what about you?
What can you as an adult do to bring back the innate genius?

When Your Cup is Full ... 
Robinson attributes this alarming drop in genius over a 10-year period to the "educating"
process. There is one answer to a problem, the system instructed us. And, we recite that
one answer in class and on examinations. To make matters worse, we were often
humiliated when we didn’t know their one answer.

This “educating” process conditioned us with what psychologists call ​functional

fixedness​—looking at a problem from a familiar viewpoint. With functional fixedness, it’s
as if a mental block hinders our ability to consider news ways of looking at things.

This dynamic is reminiscent of a Zen parable:

A student comes to a famous Zen master and asks for instruction in the way of Zen
Buddhism. The master begins to discuss several topics of Buddhism like emptiness and
meditation. But the student interrupts the master in an attempt to impress him and says,
“Oh, I already know that.”

The master then invites the student to have some tea. When the tea is ready, the master
pours the tea into a teacup, filling it to the brim, spilling tea over the sides of the cup and
onto the table.

The student exclaims, “Stop! You can’t pour tea into a full cup.”

The master replies, “Return to me when your cup is empty.”

What is a Beginner’s Mind? 
Henry David Thoreau observed, "I begin to see an object when I cease to understand it."

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While as young children we naturally “live the questions,” as poet ​Rainer Maria Rilke​ wrote,
as adults we’ve come to assume the answers. Filled with endless bits of information, we
find it difficult to sit with the ambiguity of not knowing.

The “I know” syndrome plagues us, hindering the impulse for curiosity. And curiosity is a
precursor to creativity. The solution to the “I know” pattern—the mind of the so-called
expert—is to adopt what’s called in Zen Buddhism a ​beginner’s mind​.

A beginner’s mind is empty. That is, it holds no preconceived ideas or rules about what is. It
is open, eager, and receptive. Zen teacher ​Shunryu Suzuki writes​:

“If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything; it is open to everything. In
the beginner's mind there are many possibilities; in the expert's mind there are
few.”

The Beginner’s Mind and Creativity 
In his study of creative people, Abraham Maslow found that in moments of absorption,
they describe a kind of innocence akin to the beginner’s mind. ​Maslow writes​:

“They are variously described as being naked in the situation, guileless ... without
“shoulds” or “oughts,” without fashions, fads, dogmas, habits, or other
pictures-in-the-head of what is proper, normal, “right,” as being ready to receive
whatever happens to be the case without surprise, shock, indignation, or denial.”

In moments of creativity and absorption in what we’re doing, individuals adopt a

beginner’s mind. Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi calls this state ​flow​. Maslow notes
that although children and wise old people are more able to be receptive to this beginner’s
mind, we are all able to access it when we become “here-now.”

Quantum physicist ​David Bohm​ also observed the link between creativity and the
beginner’s mind:

“One prerequisite for originality is clearly that a person shall not be inclined to
impose his preconceptions on the fact as he sees them. Rather, he must be able to
learn something new, even if this means that the ideas and notions that are
comfortable or dear to him may be overturned.”

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Maslow found that self-actualizing individuals have a “continued freshness of
appreciation.” When you first learn something new, like a way of stretching your shoulders,
your mind is engaged in the task. But how about after performing the stretch five or six
times?

After each experience doing the stretch, the freshness wanes a little more. Novelty erodes
quickly. But with renewed freshness, the mind stays open. It enables the individual to
maintain their original attitude toward something that has already become familiar.
In last week's article on ​the creative process​, I pointed out that the beginner's mind is a
prerequisite of the Student archetype.

How to Adopt a Beginner’s Mind 
Remember that a beginner’s mind is your mind’s natural state. Beginner’s mind isn’t
something difficult to attain or something that takes years of practice to experience. Such
beliefs only make something simple feel elusive.

You can’t “achieve” a beginner’s mind, nor can you “try” to be open and ready. Trying only
create internal tension. You can only strip away everything in the way of experiencing this
natural state, emptying the tea cup so that new perspectives and ideas can emerge.

To return to a beginner’s mind, find a way of calming and quieting your mental chatter.
Below are four useful methods to help empty your mind. Experiment with them and see
what works best for you.

Exercise #1: Mindful Breathing

Bring your awareness to your breath. Focus your attention on the process of inhaling and
exhale, place your awareness on a particular location like your navel as you inhale. Or
notice the feeling of the air entering your nostrils.

The main idea is to focus your attention on a single action in a particular location. Doing so
draws your energy to this area thereby quieting your mind.

See also​: ​A Complete Guide to Proper Breathing

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Exercise #2: Grounding
Sitting or standing, place both your feet firmly on the ground. Put your full awareness on
the bottom of your feet. Feel your rootedness. Notice any sensations you feel in your feet.

I find this to be one of the fastest methods for quieting my mind. Keeping our attention
exclusively on our thoughts is normal for most of us. It’s as if we have an excess amount of
energy swimming around in our heads, keeping us fixated on thinking.

When I place my attention on my feet, within seconds, I notice a shift in this energy. My
mind becomes quieter and I feel more centered.

See also​: ​Grounding Techniques to Connect to Your Body

Exercise #3: Mindful Observation

Gaze at an object for a period. Strip away the name of what you call that object. For
example, “pen.” If you didn’t know that a pen was called a pen or that it was for writing,
how would you experience this object?

Notice the form, shape, texture, color, etc. without judgment of the object. If you do this for
long enough, the object may become foreign to you. Then, you will experience a ping of
curiosity, followed by the thought, “What is that?” This curiosity is a trademark of
beginner’s mind.

Exercise #4: Dropping Labels & Identities

Drop all of your false identities about yourself. For example, I am a Democrat, a vegetarian,
an athlete, an achiever, a mother, father, sister, husband, etc. Every label you have for
yourself comes with a host of beliefs associated with that label. Each label activates an
archetype in our minds, meaning they trigger set patterns of behavior that prohibit
openness.

In a beginner’s mind, you’re empty. That is, no labels qualify. Let go of who you think you
are … if only for a few precious moments.

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The Habit of Beginner's Mind 
Although the beginner’s mind is natural, over the course of living, you tend to lose this
natural quality of consciousness. Now, to return to this natural state, you need to install a
new pattern. The above exercises can help. Use them whenever you want to open up to
new possibilities.

Experiment with them before you start working on a project or brainstorming with others.
It's also helpful when you’re wrestling with a difficult decision.

Remind yourself that whatever you currently see―whatever is known to you at

present―is only a perspective. There are many other equally valid perspectives too.
In returning to the mindset of the beginner, you open up to worlds of new ideas and
possibilities.

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Increase Your Happiness Based on Positive Psychology

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