Hello, and welcome back to our session today. 

Today we will be looking at the mental strategy of a beginner's mind. And to start off with, I'd like to put forward a definition of that. Just basically, a mind that has the ability to see any situation with fresh eyes, rather than with bias limitations. In today's session, we'll explore a little bit more about what that means. We'll also look at from a cognitive perspective, why that can be so difficult to see things with fresh eyes rather than with bias limitations. 

We'll also look at some research that demonstrates the benefit of mindfulness training to overcome those limitations. And finally, we'll wrap up with our guided instructions on how to cultivate a beginner's mind. And we'll do our mindfulness training together. To start off with, I would like you to explore for yourself how often do you experience a beginner's mind? Are you the type of person that walks into the office every day and says, Wow, another email? I can't wait to read it. Well, perhaps that's a bit unrealistic, even for the most optimistic beginner's mind. 

But think, for example, perhaps there's somebody in your office that, in general, you don't like very much are you don't think they're very smart or capable? Is it possible that sometimes when they have a really good idea, you have limitations in terms of your ability to see their potential, and instead you just assume that anything they say, is probably not that good. 

So a beginner's mind, is something that can be tremendously beneficial to us, in work, but also in life. To begin exploring this concept a little further, what I'd like to do is invite you to do a little test. What I want you to do is I will play this video, and I'd like you to answer the question on the top of the screen, simply, which way is the woman turning?

Okay, now, the interesting thing about this is you may have seen her turning clockwise. But you also may have seen her turning counterclockwise. In fact, it's an optical illusion. And people are capable of seeing her spin either clockwise, or counterclockwise. So now, what I'm going to invite you to do is watch the video again. But this time, I want you to try to see her spin the other way. 

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