A couple of people have asked me to expound on the idea of embracing ambiguity that I brought up in my lost post so I figured this would be a good place to do it. As a disclaimer these ideas are not my own. They all come from the book How to think like Leonardo Da Vinci. In the book there are exercises to help apply the different principles into our lives. The following are a few ideas that are given to "Make Friends with Ambiguity":
1. Make a list of your ten most important life questions. Are there paradoxes at the heart of any of them?
2. Sketch the feeling of uncertainty.
3. Experiment with gestures and perhaps an improvisational dance that express that feeling. What music would you choose to accompany your dance?
4. If you are not sure what to do, then you have got the idea.
5. List three situations from your life where ambiguity reigns. For example, waiting to hear if you were accepted at the college of your choice, or considering the future of a significant relationship.
6. Describe the feeling of ambiguity. Where in your body do you experience it? If it had a shape, color, sound, taste or smell what would they be?
7. Observe anxiety. What do people do when they are anxious? Is that ambiguity?
8. Make "anxiety" a theme for a day. Record your observations in your notebook.
9. Monitor intolerance for ambiguity. Count the number of times per day that you use an absolute, such as "totally," "always," "must," "never" and "absolutely."
10. Cultivate confusion endurance. Contemplate paradoxes such as change and constancy, goals and process, intimacy and independence.
11. Meditate on Mona. Sit with Mona Lisa for a while.
12. Embody Mona's smile. Experiment with her facial expression. How do you feel? Think about your list from number 1. Embody Mona's smile while you think about them. Does your thinking change?
13. Incubate yourself.
These are just some of the ideas, and there are a whole lot more in all the other sections. If you try any of these out let me know how it goes! I'd love to hear your opinions.
I really like point 7 that says to observe anxiety. This is something that I enjoy doing because it's fun for me to watch how people act when they are put in uncomfortable situations. I know that when I am put in an uncomfortable situation, I tend to stay silent or start cracking jokes. Whether this is ambiguous or not, I'm not sure. I look forward to trying out some of the other ideas as well.
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