The Year of Not Knowing
From today I am embarking on an experiment to move beyond my paradigm.
I have felt safe in assuming I am smarter than other people for most of my life. I have held onto things I know and centred conversations on my knowledge. I have dismissed the knowledges of others too easily, especially non-humans - I have assued knowledges held by humans are superior to knowledge-ways of other beings. Then I started decolonising my ideas.
Now I am ready to start letting go of this part of me. This stems from fear, this need to have an answer, an opinion or a position. I have felt a need to control circumstances and outcomes for my entire remembered life. This part of my shadow has led me to manipulation, judgment and prejudice. I will work very hard not to judge myself for these fear based trauma responses. They helped me feel safe. But I am ready to outgrow them.
From today I will assume I do not know the answer. I will listen to everyone to see what new things I can learn, without assuming that there is one correct position and that I need to find it. I will not limit this listening to human beings. I will learn the languages of non human beings by listening. I will also focus in on the knowing of my body and learn its languages.
Here are some methods I will trial to do this:
1) Respond to information in a conversation with a question, rather than a statement.
2) Practice summarising a being's points and checking them, rather than assuming, or looking to add to those assumed ideas.
3) Listen to understand, rather than add to or contribute
4) Seek to find out about the history behind a being's understanding - questions to ascertain this might be: what changed your mind about this? How did you come to know this? How has this knowledge affected your life? Who shared this knowledge with you? Why do you think that other people hold something different to be true?
Anyone else have any great tips for seeking to understand, or to come from a position of knowing nothing?
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