Ep. 28 - Keep an Open Mind

How open is your mind, really?  Sometimes even the most "open-minded" of us can find ourselves stuck in an old story, or blocking ourselves from receiving support, answers, or divine guidance.  In this solo episode of Love Space, host Aryn Love discusses the importance of having an open mind and being receptive to spiritual guidance.   Aryn also explores the concept of finding inspiration and wisdom in unexpected sources, such as listening to people we may not initially consider "wise" enough to learn from, emphasizes the value of approaching life with a beginner's mind and letting go of preconceived notions.  Finally, Aryn shares some insights on releasing our attachment to expectations and encourages listeners to embrace the beauty of unexpected twists and turns in life.  This episode explores:

• the importance of keeping an open mind
• finding inspiration and wisdom in unexpected sources
• the value of a beginner's mind 
• being open to guidance
• letting go of preconceived notions
• learning to collaborate instead of dominate our partners and friends
• letting go of old stories that keep us stuck
• releasing expectations and letting ourselves be surprised
• the parable of the drowning man
• how Creator can work through others to help us
• the spiritual practice of "Two Way Prayer"
• the importance of deep listening
• making space to receive divine inspiration and guidance

Please follow, subscribe, rate, and review the show -- or better yet, share this episode with someone you love.  You can connect with us on Instagram @aryn.love @lovespacepodcast or send Aryn an email with suggestions for future episodes at itsarynlove@gmail.com.  Thank you for sharing the love.  XX

Transcript

[Auto-generated transcript]

Hi friends, welcome back to Love Space. I'm Aryn Love, I'm your host, and I'm so glad that you're here. I'm an artist, a teacher, ceremonialist, and a lawyer based in the Midwest with a love for all things, spirituality and wellness. I'm a student of psychology, nature, and indigenous wisdom, herbalism, and spirituality. I have studied for probably the last two decades.

all the different wisdom traditions of the world and really just this lifelong journey of seeking to be in this space that I call the love space. So where I feel more connected, more beautiful, more lucky to be alive, and where I remember how worthy I am that I am connected to something bigger than myself. I'm connected to my community, I'm connected to the earth, and I'm connected to

which I believe flows through all things, including us. So I'm so happy that you're here. This is a community podcast where we talk about all the different ways that we navigate the human experience and especially those practices that bring us back into the love space. So today I have a very dear topic to my heart because this is something I've really developed in the last year and that is about having an open mind.

So many of us listening probably think of ourselves as open-minded. I know I've always thought of myself that way. Ever since I was a teenager, I would declare that I was open-minded. But when I look back at these long-held beliefs that I have had and just the way that I navigated the world, I could tell you that's probably not the case. So one thing I wanna challenge you today is to think about how open is your mind really? And...

I think this is something that fluctuates throughout the day, throughout our lives. But keeping an open mind and the value of that and really making yourself available for spiritual guidance. So many of us, whether we have a prayer practice or a meditation practice or we journal or whatever it is that our spiritual life looks like, we're often looking for answers. I don't know how many times I have Googled.

something that I know Google does not have the answers to, right? Like, why am I so tired? And we seek out these answers, but are we really available for those answers to come? And I think the key to this for me has been really truly keeping an open mind. So for example, you may get guidance from so many different sources. You may listen to someone that you don't think has a lot to offer.

as far as wisdom is concerned, and hearing them share their story or whatever it is that they're, you know, talking to you about. If you're really listening, if you're really tapped in and deep listening, you may actually get some nuggets of wisdom or inspiration that send you, you know, to the next level of whatever it is that you're trying to achieve, whatever it is that you're seeking. I think that creator spirit speaks to us through other people.

through the plants, right? Through nature, through even the television programs or the radio that we're listening to, there are answers everywhere. There is always inspiration everywhere. So I wanna explore with you today in this solo episode, just different practices that have helped me open my mind. And I know that one place that I often overlook,

inspiration and wisdom is the people closest to me. So how many of us have felt, maybe if the shoe was on the other foot, how many of us have had this phenomenon where, you know, we tell our parents about something or we tell our partner about something or our best friend and we're so excited to share this with them and we've been telling them about it maybe for years and they kind of just don't, they're not available for what we're talking to them about. So, you know, maybe try to convince your parents to do yoga or

whatever it is, you know, telling your partner about this great restaurant, and then out of nowhere, they hear about the same thing from somebody else that's not you, and they're all ears. They're like, oh my gosh, why have I not been doing yoga? Or, oh my gosh, look at this restaurant, why have we never tried this? And you're like, hello, I've been telling you this the whole time, but they were not available for to hear that from you, because maybe you're so close.

Aryn (07:37.038)
And I think this is something that I'm guilty of doing. You know, when my own parents tell me about something that I should check out or my own partner has wisdom to share with me, I often have a story around where I get those wisdom insights. You know, where do I get teachings from? So I may sit down to read a book about, you know, spiritual wisdom and

And I'm really open and ready to receive the wisdom, or looking to these ancient yogic texts, or even just going to a class or a workshop or a retreat when you're really cracked open and ready to receive those insights. But I have received just as many really impactful and powerful insights from just sitting on my front porch and observing my neighbors.

And it just hits you when you're not expecting it. And so opening your mind to receiving this, whether it's creative inspiration or answers to a question or just problem solving, creative solutions, if you can let go of the story that you may have around who is available to give you that information and kind of.

open your mind and your heart to receive that from unexpected sources. So you may have people in your life that you've sort of written off or that you have a story around what they're capable of teaching you. And I think bringing it back to a concept in yoga and mindfulness, which is the beginner's mind. When you're a beginner, you don't have any preconceived notions about where you learn or how you learn or how to do.

particular process so it can be really valuable to come to the table with a beginner's mind in everything that you do. And a beginner is a lot more receptive to advice, teaching, wisdom, lessons, whereas somebody who comes to the table at whatever it is that has this attitude of being a master already and maybe there are areas in which you are absolutely a master and you should own that. But don't limit yourself from

Aryn (09:52.714)
potential insight, right, or guidance from creator, or even just guidance from the people around you that may have really valuable wisdom to share with you. If you can let that go, that idea, that story about being a master, open your mind, you are coming to it with a beginner's mind and you will actually pick up a lot more value.

Aryn (10:22.63)
Another area that I have.

Aryn (10:39.606)
Relatedly, you may already have a story around how you think things should go. So for example, you may have in your mind when you wake up a story around how the day is going to go. And you may have a story around how your career is going to go or should go or is supposed to go. How your partnership is supposed to look. How your life is supposed to look.

Do you already have a story around how you think it's all supposed to go? The less attached we can be to a story around how something is supposed to look, whether that, or feel, something like your career, your partnership, your friendships, your family dynamics, the more attached we are to our stories around how these things should go, the less available we actually are for...

divine guidance, right? Universe coming in to support us, twists and turns that inevitably life brings us. And it is so much more beautiful. It is always so much more beautiful than we could have ever imagined. But we may close ourself off to opportunities, growth, all sorts of miracles.

if we are too attached to a story around how it should go. And so I especially wanna bring this up to women especially in partnership for example. I can tell you so many times that I have had a really fixed idea around how something should look. So one example that comes up around this is like.

like New Year's Eve or Valentine's Day or one of these like pseudo romantic milestone holidays where you just have so many expectations and that coupled with maybe a fear that it's not gonna go the way you want it to go. And then you kind of just grasp a little more tightly for control around those events or those days. And especially in partnership. I have kind of grasped for control because I want to make sure that it's going to go exactly how I want it to go, I don't leave any room for

the other person to kind of collaborate with me in that, to plan something or surprise me. Okay, so here's a really embarrassing story. So I remember when I was in high school and I had this wonderful group of friends, girlfriends, who were trying to surprise me for my birthday and take me out for my birthday. And I...

being 100% grasping for control all the time. You know, being in the car, I think I had my eyes closed or I was blindfolded or something. But I had kind of thought, oh, I can probably  figure out where we're going. And I just like needed to know all the details. And I had it in my head that we were going to this place and I'm like guiding them to where I think we're going. And they're like, you don't even know where we're going. Like, and I'm like, no, we need to go this way.

And they were like, we are surprising you, you don't know where we're going. And I'm taking them down this one street and it's of course where we're supposed to be going is totally in the opposite direction. And there was just so much resistance. They had to literally fight me to just follow them and trust them. And of course they guided me to this restaurant and we had a great time and it was a really fun night.

But I almost didn't even make it to the table because I was so fixated on having this control over where we were going, what we were doing. And what I robbed myself of was this opportunity to just be cared for and guided and surprised. You know, I robbed my friends of that opportunity to give me that too. How fun is it to plan a surprise for someone, right? And really surprise them. And I just couldn't let it go. I just didn't have enough trust.

Aryn (15:22.186)
really to let it go. And I have a lot of compassion for that version of myself, but that is one of many stories I can think about in my past where I was just so tightly gripping on control and a story around how it was supposed to go that I really didn't even....

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