Let's start with defining open mindedness. What it is and what it is not.
It is not only, as some believe, an ability to mentally accept and not judge different points of view, ideas and concepts.
It is the willingness to not only accept but also explore and as a consequence - fully understand diverse ideas, perspectives, concepts, people, theories and ways of living.
It is accommodating different values, different perspectives, even if they don't align with our beliefs, concept or experiences.
It is being open to all possibilities and being able and willing to embrace them and venture into them as they arise.
True open mindedness is limitless. It thrives on curiosity, experimentation and exploration in action. It can go in any direction, any depth, and any length of distance and time.
True open mindedness is fearless and courageous. It ventures into unknown without fear of change that it often brings about, without fear of criticism, not being accepted, and/or failure, without fear of being perceived as 'different' or 'strange'.
True open mindedness does not concepualise, label, or try to sort into any known category, as that would be trying to align unknown and not yet experienced with our or existing/accepted beliefs and theories, concepts, knowledge and/or experiences.
Open mindedness does not hold anything in. It does not believe in anything either. True open mindedness opens all doors of their being, lets go of any belief, concept, idea, conditioning, even knowledge, that might prevent expansion and growth.
And finally, true open mindedness is liberating. Holding to nothing at all, it liberates from limits, fears, concepts, programming and other people's opinions, and thus empowers you to become the best and the most authentic version of yourself, as an artist and as a person.
For some open mindedness resides, starts and finishes in mind only, while true open mindedness only starts in mind, but always finishes in action.
Now, how does open mindedness relate to authentic artistic expression ?
Being liberated from limits, fears, concepts, programming and dependency on other people's opinions, opens us as much as to new ideas and perspectives and allows for a diverse range of influences and inspiration, as to exploring, discovering and finding our own, leading to fresh, authentic and often innovative solutions to problems and artistic expression.
Open mindedness induces a state of mind known as 'flow', which is another key ingredient to creativity, as researchers have found. Achieving a state of flow means being fully present and absorbed and focused on a task, leading to heightened creativity, productivity and unique (artistic) expression.
Being open minded allow us to challenge existing beliefs and assumptions as well as our own, which leads to greater self-development, which in turn reflects on our development as artists.
Being free of concepts as to 'how we should' interpret something, or what audience or critics expect from us, or how they perceive us, can help us pianists or any other performers get fully immersed in the music we are interpreting, explore it with 'fresh eyes', and feel free to find our own artistic 'language', style and expression.
Are you open minded ? If not, start working on cultivating it, and pushing the boundaries of what is possible !
Really enjoyed reading it. Excellent article!