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09. Openness Practice: A New Experience Each Day

Openness Trying new experiences

This practice (adapted from the Vesica Institute Essentials and Practices of Spiritual Science course) cultivates openness and adaptive coherence by gently interrupting habitual patterns. By introducing intentional novelty into daily life, you invite your perceptual system to reorganize, increasing sensitivity, flexibility and responsiveness. Over time, this strengthens your capacity to engage with experience directly rather than through automatic routines.

 

Instructions:

Over the course of 1 week, choose and complete one new experience each day.

  1. Intentionally introduce novelty
  • Each day, decide on one new experience you will have. This may involve stepping outside a familiar routine, pattern or comfort zone.
  • In general, the further the experience is from your habitual choices, the more effectively it supports openness within your subtle body and perceptual field. Begin within a range that feels safe and appropriate for you.
  1. Choose a form of new experience
  • The experience does not need to be dramatic. What matters is that it is genuinely unfamiliar to you.
  • A new experience may take many forms, including:
    • Going to a new place
    • Engaging in a new activity
    • Trying foods you do not normally eat
    • Changing a familiar route, schedule or environment
  1. Plan in advance when helpful
  • On some days, you may choose your new experience ahead of time. This can be especially useful if there are activities, places or social invitations you have been meaning to explore but have postponed out of habit.
  1. Remain open to spontaneous opportunities
  • On other days, allow your new experience to arise spontaneously. Notice moments when an unfamiliar option presents itself and consciously choose to engage rather than defaulting to routine. This approach is particularly effective, as habitual patterns often filter out opportunities before they reach conscious awareness. You may alternate between planning ahead and allowing spontaneity from day to day. This variation itself further supports openness and flexibility.
  1. Notice the internal effects
  • After completing your new experience, briefly check in with your body and awareness. Many people experience increased freshness, curiosity and perceptual clarity as this practice unfolds. Notice any changes in:
    • Sensation
    • Mood
    • Mental clarity
    • Sense of aliveness or engagement

With consistent application, this exercise gradually loosens rigid patterns and restores a sense of curiosity and engagement with life. Over time, openness becomes an embodied quality rather than an effort, allowing experience to meet you with greater richness while you remain centered in your own resonance.

 

 

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