We all have our biases. But if we want to improve our interpersonal skills, we need to fight these biases. We need to look at the world and people from different viewpoints, just like looking out a garden from different window frames – the same garden, just different perspectives.
I want to share an interesting post I came across from TransCulturalGroup entitled Window Frames of Your Mind. The post talks about the gardens in Shanghai and Suzhou and how their beautiful kaleidoscope of windows gives us different perspectives of the garden. The window frames allow us to enjoy the gardens from different angles.
Just like viewing the gardens, we need to look at people, the world, and our lives from different angles and perspectives to see the beauty in everything.
To better our cross-cultural skills, we learn that everyone has unconscious bias. All of us tend to interpret others and our world through the lenses in our minds. If we only have one set of lenses, we will only have one perspective of interpreting the world. We will not see what others may see, and we will likely miss the beauty the world is offering us.
Like the Chinese gardens designed to amaze spectators at different angles of the garden through the window frames, the different perspectives in which we look at life and people give us the same surprise. We will be in awe at the beauty we have not seen before in the world and others. We will realize that other cultures can also be beautiful, other traditions can be fascinating, and other beliefs can be interesting. We just need to see every view from different perspectives. We need to go through every experience and meet every person with openness and acceptance.
May your world be inspired by the different window frames of your mind!
Read more: Window Frames of Your Mind
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