Evolving Opinions

One of the beauties of being human is the ability to form and feel opinions. Everyone is unique and everyone interprets stimuli in different ways. In some cases, we form the same opinions as others, while in different situations we have the opposite feelings. When we disagree with the opinions of others it does not make us correct, it just shows our differences as humans with individual thoughts. Our opinions are big pieces of what makes us who we are because they oftentimes live in the grey area of life, as opposed to the black-and-white world of right and wrong. Since opinions are not factual, they inherently cannot be right or wrong, they just are.

Opinions give each of us anchoring points for how we respond, react, and interpret different situations but they are not necessarily permanent feelings. Since opinions are not drilled into us at a fundamental level, our minds have the capacity to change how we feel. We have the ability to learn new information and then switch our stance. We are able to hear a different perspective to help us rethink our own. We are not married to any one opinion. We are able to live in cycles of evolvement where our minds change our thoughts and feelings based on our developing opinions.

Since our opinions can change as we grow and interpret information differently, it does not make sense for others to shame our evolving mindsets. We are not contradictory people for switching sides of the table if we can explain why. We are not lesser individuals for no longer believing in one thing and instead believing in the other. We are not any less human, anymore ___, ___, ___, you fill in the words with what comes to mind. We are allowed to change and changing our minds is part of life. Our opinions are allowed to grow and evolve just like we do as humans.

As we have all experienced life it can be a good thought experiment to think about your individual perceptions or opinions you had in prior areas of your life. Think 6 months ago, think when you were entering college, think before you were married, what differences come to mind? How different are your opinions and perspectives now than they were back then? What core opinions have remained resilient and persisted over the course of time?