how to open your mind part 2

1)Build ridiculous things like radios, legos, robots, trebuchets

2)Walk backwards through your whole house. (But be extra careful not to trip over anything, or fall down the stairs)

3)Try foods you have never tried. Have you tried sushi? Have you tried Vietnamese? Mediterranean? Indian? Native-American? Cajun? Have you ever tasted a Boba? A shot of Wheatgrass? Have you smoked a hookah? Have you eaten durian or the Filipino delicacy, balut? Think it's unhealthy? Do you know it's unhealthy? Look it up.

4)Push the limits of your body. By using your body in new ways, you can learn more about yourself, and expand your mind. Learn to do a handstand. A backflip. A kip-up. Take martial arts classes. Try some Hip-Hop classes or learn a break dance move. Can you touch your toes? Work on it. Try skiing, snowboarding, jet skiing, Hang gliding, parasailing, surfing, and anything else that pushes the limits of your comfort zone!

5)Attend churches, synagogues, mosques, temples, trade union meetings, places of worship and meditation that you never have. Read about and learn how to recognize cults or cult-like behavior and avoid them!

6)Learn How to Spin a Pencil Around Your Thumb, solve a Rubik's Cube, or try Cup Stacking. Don't know what these are? Look them up. Learn!

7)Face your fears! Are you computer-illiterate? Putz around on a computer for a while. Don't be scared. You won't break anything. Learn a programming language. Nothing is as hard as anyone makes it out to be. Build your own computer. Think it's hard? You'll never know until you actually do it. It's somewhat ridiculous how many HowTo's there are on building a computer.

8)Learn to juggle. A great workout for your brain, eyes and reflexes. Are three balls too easy? Try four, or better yet, five. If you get extremely good, try 10! 20! 50! Think it's impossible? Keep an open mind. Just Try Try Try! Contact Juggling for a different challenge.

9)Open your mind to other political or religious points of view. You may find it hard to stomach at first, but in time you might find a grain of truth in what your nemesis has to say. Even if you don't, you'll be able to argue with one of "them" much more intelligently. Here's a hard but effective method: take a controversial issue that you have a strong opinion about. Write an essay defending your opinion with as much evidence and actual citations as possible. Then write another essay defending the other side, again with evidence and citations, considering that side's arguments seriously and being scrupulously honest and putting in as much effort as you did the first essay.

10)Try blocking out one of your senses. Do everyday things, like cleaning up your room or using your cell phone, with a blindfold. It puts things in perspective when you are forced to "create" new ways of doing things you've already figured how to do. You could also try using a different part of your body to do things, like write with your teeth or type with your toes.