1-to-3 month old Infant: Establishing Awareness of Your Ignorance

Establish Awareness of Your Ignorance by utilizing strategies for developing humility:

1. When you unable to find adequate information that confirms your belief, start by saying: “it may not be correct, but what I think is…” or “Up to this moment I have believed…” or “Based on the limited information I have found in this area, I would say…”.

2. Be aware of when you are involved in the dispute about beliefs without evidence to confirm them. Be aware of why you are doing this.

3. Question your beliefs that seem undoubtably legitimate to you, specifically deeply held beliefs such as religious, cultural, or political.

4. Locate other sources of information that represent perspectives you have never examined.

5. Do not be timid about exploring new beliefs, and then open to new understandings.

6. Create a list of everything you unquestionably recognize about someone you think you thoroughly know. Next create a list of things you think may be true about that person, though you cannot be 100% sure of. Then create a list of things that you do not know about that person. Finally, if you have trust in that relationship, show him or her your list to determine how accurate you are. What wisdom surfaces for you after you get feedback on your lists?

Questions to ask to identify flaws in your thinking:

• What do I really know (regarding myself, about this situation, about the other person, about information provided to me, about what is going on in the nation or the world as a whole)?

   

• To what degree do my prejudices, beliefs, or biases affect my thinking?

• To what degree have I been programmed into opinions that might not be true?

• How does the point of view I have established carelessly kept me from seeing things as they are?

• Do I ever see things outside the box (regarding my culture, nation, religion, etc.)?

• How familiar am I about different belief systems?

• Has my beliefs been formed by the era, I was born, by the town or city in which I grew up, by my parents’ philosophies, by my spouse’s views, by my culture, religion, politics, etc.