Professor Carol Dweck of Stanford published groundbreaking research about how we see life—what we believe—in Mindset: The New Psychology of Success in 2007. She says, “It’s not always the people who start out the smartest who end up the smartest.”
By what you believe, I don’t mean whether or not you believe in Jesus or God or Spirit. It’s sort of what you believe about yourself. Dweck discovered that some people believe in constantly growing. That their are opportunities in the world to be discovered. That I believe that I can be as healthy and fit as nature allows. It’s called a growth mindset.
We all know people, I pray you are not one who believed that things were always bad, they were going to turn out bad, that there was little hope on earth. There is a negative mindset.
You can change and adapt your mindset. It may be almost natural, something you learned early to adapt to life. It may be something you’ve grown into.
You can adopt a mindset open to new experiences. You can be open to hearing or feeling the urges that come from God. You can be open to following the ways of Jesus and living in the spirit.
I sometimes sit with my arms crossed because it stretches my shoulders and feels good. But mostly we sit with our arms crossed and maybe our legs crossed as a sort of defensive posture of not wanting to hear what someone else is saying. Try sitting “open.” Upright, Hands open. Eyes open. Let the words of text or from the speaker soak in open to perhaps learning something or at least understanding someone else.
You may find yourself growing emotionally and spiritually.
Faith Venture 
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