Investigating Open-Mindedness Abroad In Ireland

Traveling around Ireland has been quite an ear-opening experience. 

Starting off in Northern Ireland, a part of the United Kingdom (reminds me a lot of the Kingdom of Hawai'i as "part of the US" #iykyk) and spending the remaining part of my trip in the city of Dublin, I have found a commonality across the country of Ireland: a pattern of speaking freely about.... well, everything. It felt strange and foreign to me (pun intended) given the political climate and massive division in the United States, genocide and war across the globe, and being stifled to speak given the fear of being rejected or worse. Ireland, however, seems to be very free-flowing with their various thoughts and opinions and they don’t mind talking about it. The major difference that drove me to dive deeper into this from a health perspective was the radical acceptance of people's thoughts (or opinions) whether in agreement or not. 

It was surprisingly refreshing to be in a climate to share opinions and thoughts without being ostracized, judged, or the latter (on both sides!) Oddly enough, when the group of Irish natives I gathered with this afternoon started talking about American politics (just can’t get away from it!) and had vastly different views, they still left the cafe as friends. How is that possible? This comes down to the practice of open-mindedness. Being open-minded is different than being vocal about your beliefs. Cambridge Dictionary defines openmindedness as, “...being willing to consider ideas and opinions that are new or different to your own”. Indeed, the perspective of open-mindedness and speaking freely benefits mental health, but to what capacity does it contribute to a healthier lifestyle overall? This question can be seriously picked apart, especially because Ireland is considered to have some of the highest mental health illness ratings throughout 36 countries (particularly for depression and anxiety reported from BreakingNews.ie). But overall, the health benefits of open-mindedness are noticeable, regardless of the nation. 
It has been scientifically proven that being open-minded is tied to numerous health benefits, including gaining insight, personal growth, mental strengthening, optimism, and learning new things (Cherry, 2023). More specifically, Penn State analyzed the benefits stating that research suggests benefits of openminded include multiple pillars, for example: “Open-minded, cognitively complex individuals are less swayed by singular events and are more resistant to suggestion and manipulation….better able to predict how others will behave and are less prone to projection [and] tend to score better on tests of general cognitive ability like the SAT or an IQ test” (UPenn, 2024). There haven’t been any negative consequences associated with “openmindness” specifically that I could find. So if being “open-minded” is considered healthier overall, why doesn’t it happen globally? Studies found that it has to do with rigidity and values that come with aging in addition to life experience. The Department of Health and Behavioural Sciences at Newman University, Birmingham, UK did a study and found that, “...It is proposed that the observed differences are the result of a reluctance to change long-established values and ideas at the cognitive level and cortical changes that occur with aging”. Have you ever heard the expression: “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks?”. This could arguably be the basis of which that phrase originated. Avoiding generalizations is a place to start on this very vague mental health subject, and what we can prove is that a decrease in openmindedness significantly affects decision-making (Edgcumbe, 2021). So for this article, a special cheers out to Ireland for a very open-minded experience!

Citations


Cherry, K. (2023, March 22). How to Be Open-Minded and Why It Matters. Verywell Mind.        https://www.verywellmind.com/be-more-open-minded-4690673


Edgcumbe, D. R. (2021). Age Differences in Open-Mindedness: From 18 to 87-Years of Age. Experimental Aging Research, 48(1), 24–41. https://doi.org/10.1080/0361073X.2021.1923330


University of Pennsylvania. (2024). Open-Mindedness | Authentic Happiness. Upenn.edu. https://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/newsletters/authentichappinesscoaching/open-mindedness


Location: Dublin, Ireland

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Recreation Therapy in the United States and Canada Explained

Image
  Author's Sidenote:  While preparing to head over to Canada to cross Niagra Falls off of my bucket list, I thought, “How does the field of recreation therapy work in other countries?” It has always been a challenge to explain my profession as a Recreation Therapist (RT), whether I am traveling or settled down in the homeland (Southern California). As many RTs will tell you, half the battle of our career is explaining what we do, why it is beneficial (to literally anyone),  and letting people know we go further than simply “playing bingo” or "having fun". I began to wonder how Recreation Therapy is practiced in other countries, particularly with our neighbors to the North. So let’s start from the ground up: here is a general idea of what the practice of Recreation Therapy looks like and how Canada and the United States view and utilize the growing practice of Recreational Therapy. _______________________________________
Read more

Four Important Health Hacks for All Travelers

Image
Travel Views Out of The Window | PC: Leilani Fischbeck Four Important Health Hacks for Traveling  All seasoned travelers have their own hacks to avoid getting sick when traveling. Whether you are a regular traveler or just preparing to venture out for the first time, here are some #healthhacks that are bound to make navigating your travels easier (and cleaner).   1. Ask them to change the air filter in hotels.   Did you know that most hotels should change their air filters more often? Every hotel varies, and it is becoming more of an outstanding issue after the #Covid outbreak. If you start to feel your allergies kick up during your stay, or experience any sort of sinus symptoms, this could be because the air filter had not been changed for a while. On top of that, the traffic in hotels is exponentially higher which means the air filter gets more use than those in your home. This creates more dust, bacteria, and particles in your breathing space so there is even more of a...
Read more