Radio Headspace Embracing the Things We Don’t Like
Jul 3, 2020
A reflection on turning toward things you usually avoid and meeting them with curiosity. Anecdotes about encouraging picky kids to try vegetables and a monastery experiment about disliked foods. A personal story of learning to drink coffee through repeated exposure. An invitation to replace rigid like/dislike thinking with curious openness this weekend.
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Children Refuse Greens Until Asked To Try
- Andy recounts nightly dinners where his sons refuse green vegetables until he asks them to try a little bit.
- He contrasts childhood rules about finishing food with encouraging curiosity rather than avoidance during meals.
Monastery Served Foods I Said I Disliked
- Andy shares a monastery stay where monks asked what foods he disliked and then served them to him daily.
- He listed items like coffee, cake, and chocolate and was surprised when disliked foods were intentionally offered to change his relationship with them.
Exposure Changes Disliked Things Into Curiosity
- Repeated exposure to things we claim to dislike can transform our relationship with them from avoidance to curiosity.
- Andy found daily servings of coffee forced him to investigate his dislike and become more open rather than rigidly oppositional.