Beyond the Echo Chamber: A New Year's Resolution for Kindness and Curiosity

By Corrin Goodall

My Confession

I am guilty of many conflicts with family or friends that don't share my views and, spoiler alert, I haven't changed many minds with my passionate and righteous opinions. For me, these conflicts would generally be face to face and I imagine, if these were to take place over social media, I'd have even less of a chance of influencing a change of mind. We see over and over again people feel they have no choice but to double down on their opinions. This can be especially disheartening if you've spent a pain staking amount of time composing and researching the comment you share.

The Limits of Confrontation

On the flip of this I also find myself very comfortable in my bubble and when someone attempts to metaphorically pierce I feel irritated. There's a part of me feeling vulnerable putting this into words and I'm aware of this paragraph making me sound like a right hoot (ha ha), but please read on as this is exactly why I feel I need to change.

 A New Approach: Kindness and Curiosity

So I've come to the conclusion that I need to be kind and curious when faced with uncomfortable opinions. This does not mean that I will strive to seek out discussions with people with polarising views to my beliefs, it’s more subtle than that. When a topic comes up that I happen to be involved in or it seems to take a turn, I will hold my truth whilst being curious and kind to the opinions of others.

 Activism Through Understanding

I fear that people (and I include myself here) have been reluctant to do this firstly because we aren't taught to do this, society is currently incredibly polarising so we find ourselves shaped into camps and that trickles through to our day to day conversations. Second is the belief that you are in some way letting go of your truth when you don't enter into confrontation when someone says something you don't agree with. Contrary to that belief I believe you learn more about why that person may hold those views, you'll strengthen your argument calmly whilst creating a space where they may actually listen to you and this is when minds can change. This is activism! As a community of people that spend a large amount of time discussing the benefits of positive reinforcement and using it in our work with dogs and their humans, should we not be considering this more widely to serve ourselves and our causes better? 

A Call for Compassion

Well that's my shift in thinking to wrap up 2024, and after viewing a short clip of Tim Minchin (click to watch below) I will strive to be more kind not only to those that mirror my views but those that I couldn't disagree with more. I’m under no illusions that this will be a work in progress and there are people in this world I can't, at this stage, imagine holding a calm conversation with but I'm going to see how this works out for me in 2025. I have a sneaky suspicion it may lift a weight off my shoulders but we'll see. Does this concept speak to you? We’d love to hear your thoughts on this and I'll try and remember to report back sometime in the new year.

In the meantime stay happy, stay safe and have an amazing time over the festive period and see you all in 2025!!!