Why not live and let live?

There are two rules in my house. 1- Mother (that would be me) is always right. 2- If mother is wrong, refer back to rule number one.

It's no secret to all who have been reading my column over the last two-and-half-years that I'm both opinionated and vociferous about my opinions.

But what might come as a jolt to most is that I'm surprisingly open-minded. Shockingly so at times when, more often than not, I'll play devil's advocate against popularly held beliefs.

It's not because I truly believe the opposite of what the other person is saying - in fact a lot of the time I probably agree with them a lot more than they think - but one of the things that irritates me more than almost any other human failing is single-mindedness and refusal to admit that someone-else's point might be a valid one.

Just because we see things one way doesn't mean that looking at it from another point of view is wrong.

We don't always have to agree with each other but, in order to justify forming an opposing opinion, we do have to at least be able to see where the other person is coming form.

As humans, we intrinsically think that our opinions are right and anyone differing is wrong.

We're generally so biased towards our own beliefs, that when we see something that fits the mould of our sensibilities it's hard to see the other side of things.

It's hard to see that others may look at things from a different perspective. We're so determined that we're right that often we can't admit - even to ourselves - that the other person might have a good point. Even more difficult to believe is that we might both be right.

It just depends from what viewpoint we're looking.

Culture is a great example. It never ceases to amaze me how some Westerners can come to somewhere as culturally rich as Bahrain and completely fail to see that a different way of life to their own isn't necessarily wrong or bad.

They'll look at the fact that a lot of women wear the hijab and insist that it means that women here are down-trodden and forced into wearing it against their will.

The truth of the matter is very different. While in some cases it might be true, more and more we see women wearing it out of personal choice and belief and even when their father or husband leave the choice up to them, these women choose to wear it because they want to.

A closed mind would see a woman wearing a hijab as a victim but in reality it's more than plausible that she's a triumphant example of freedom of choice - one of the key factors in a democracy.

It seems incredible to me that a person would go to live and work in a completely different environment to their own and still refuse to open their minds to other ways of life than the one they're used to but while the example given is an extreme one, closed mindedness comes in every shape and size.

We form our opinions based on how we grow up and the way we see things and all too often we close ourselves off to new experiences and discoveries.

Rather than dismissing something out of hand we need to ask ourselves, why?

Why do people do the things they do, behave the way they do and believe the things they believe?

What's their motivation and the reasoning behind their thoughts and actions?

Instead of making decisions based on what we believe we need to start asking ourselves why we believe the things we believe. With a better understanding of ourselves and others we open ourselves to possibilities that we hadn't previously considered.

We need to realise that things and situations are ever changing and developing and we have to learn from those changes in order to keep up with them.

Sixty years ago racial segregation was rife and of the norm but on December 1, 1955, African-American civil rights activist Rosa Louise McCauley Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus for a white passenger.

It was a catalyst for the civil rights movement that has resulted in the fact that today racism and segregation are no longer acceptable in civilised society.

When Alexander Graham Bell first invented the telephone, he was ridiculed and laughed at, with people telling him it was going to be a useless invention that would never catch on.

Now, more than 130 years later, few of us can name a person we know that doesn't own a mobile phone.

An open mind is what allows us to be positive and succeed in life and to close ourselves off from any possibility other than what we think to be true is to lose a chance to learn and grow.

Change and flexibly in all things are not only good but necessary for the development of mankind. Why should it be any different for the way we think?

We need to learn about acceptance of others, even when it's foreign to our nature - even if it's just to reaffirm to ourselves that we still believe in what we believe in.

If we want to be able to stand by what we deem to be true we need to really understand it and we can't do that without all the facts laid out before us.

Sometimes we need to take risks or leaps of faith to discover new things and new ideals and most importantly of all we need to learn not to fear being wrong.

Being mistaken isn't a failure; our refusal to admit our mistakes is the real failure.