Having No Opinion

Showing up in a human body on this planet means that you have stepped into a matrix of interactions built on opinions of what is right or wrong, good or bad, what should or should not be. For most people, the need for this polarity is so obvious that the thought of having no opinion is an illusion - an impossible fabrication.

In truth, it is the matrix of opinion that is the illusion! If there is no human around to judge one tree more beautiful than another, do the trees judge themselves?

The capacity to adopt and change perspectives is a uniquely human trait. Based on an opinion, or judgment of your outside world, you have the ability to shift your perspective and look at things in a different way. You not only have the ability but the freedom to say, “That guy is bad for his illegal activities … but the situation is good because now he’ll be caught.” From one perspective, illegal activities are bad, from another they are good. Depending on how you choose to perceive it, each of those opinions, i.e. judgments, will generate the experience of a different emotion for you.

Every emotion requires a judgment for its inception. The suggestion that something is good or bad, should or should not be, even unconsciously, is the universal prompt for the movement of energy called emotion. Emotion is the movement of charged particles through our system of awareness. The body responds with chemical changes that can be measured in sweat and tears. Every organ and soft tissue in the body moves with the energy of emotion in its unique way, and this movement produces an experience in the body you can feel. It’s why “sad” feels different than “jealous” or “happy.”

Because humanity is unconsciously conditioned and identified with living by emotions, it is so easy to be wrapped up in a vortex of judgments and opinions every day. You feel each other. You sense the opinions of others by the emotions produced, and that soup of emotions produces sensations within you. It is the sensations that are most compelling - the weight of sadness in your chest, the intensity of anger in your shoulders, jaw or fists, the tension of anxiety in the solar plexus.

The purpose of the empathic sense is to relate to one another through sensory awareness, emotional resonance and intuitive clarity. As your body moves into the resonant field of another, your systems are already providing you information about your environment, about the thoughts, opinions and emotions of those around you.

Mastery of your own awareness, your ability to walk in clarity feeling unaffected by the emotional weather of those around you is founded in your willingness to consider perspectives without an opinion. You can recognize empathic information without becoming overwhelmed by it.

Even for a few seconds at a time, the experience of no opinion provides your awareness, your sensory systems, with a break in the emotional weather, so to speak. Like creating an eye of the storm through your own awareness, you can feel the already-centered sensation of your own presence. Your presence, like the trees, has no opinion. It simply is what it is and keeps showing up for you to experience the world around you. In order to feel overwhelm, you must engage with judgment.

“What about atrocities, Kerri? How do you not have an opinion about genocide?”

It’s a great question. Try it! For just a few seconds, give “genocide” permission to exist without making it good or bad. Having no opinion about genocide is not the same as condoning it - you are simply taking a break from any opinion of it. For a few seconds, save yourself the energy of maintaining that it is “bad” or even the suggestion that it is “inevitable.” Save yourself the analysis of historic events and save yourself the effort of justifying your position. Simply take a break from the opinion. In those few seconds, begin to recognize how your physical body responds.

“Am I just supposed to sit around and do nothing, Kerri? Does this mean I think genocide is good?”

Both good and bad are polarities of judgment. Having no opinion means you forego the effort to say genocide is good or bad and simply let yourself be right where you are, acknowledging that genocide exists. Notice how your body responds to the absence of an opinion, if even for a few seconds.

If you’d like to take action, from the absent of judgment you are free, more free than ever really, to take action as your heart would have you act. Acting from the heart, without opinion, is a movement to return a situation to integrity. There is no punishing a wrong or rewarding a right.

You see an injured dog on the side of the road. You might have a strong opinion that “those people who did this to the dog are horrible! People like that shouldn’t be allowed to have pets. Humans are scum … we don’t deserve dogs …” And by the time you are finished convincing yourself of your opinions, you’ve driven right past the dog who could have used a little help.

Living without an opinion gives you the opportunity to drive along, notice a creature in need of some help and take action from integrity to your heart as you honor the wellness of another living creature. No energy is spent on punishing someone you’ve not met and perhaps don’t understand. Even in such a difficult situation, taking action from your heart can feel nourishing. The action can feel more graceful. Taking action from judgment will generally leave you feeling drained, weighed down and hungry for connection.

The ideas of right and wrong were developed in an attempt to usher human egos toward integrity. Because right and wrong are connected to emotions though, a person is more easily controlled and manipulated through the ideas of right and wrong. A person navigating by integrity operates from a truer sense of the neutral heart and is much harder to control.

If a person decides that integrity is better than injustice though, they are right back into the vortex of opinion and emotion. Suddenly, there is a comparison to defend. It’s a line of subtle discernment until you have enough experience with yourself operating without opinions to navigate clearly by the sense of neutrality.

The body provides great feedback about the presence of opinions or their absence. Don’t just take my word for it! When you feel angry, look at the sensations through the body, the tensions, the way the mind moves. At a time when you can have no opinion, notice whether the body has different communication through tension, or its absence. Notice if having no opinion has a different effect on the way the mind functions.

Your capacity to explore having no opinion welcomes a greater purity of your own nature, your innate way of being. Save yourself the investment in opinion-maintenance, and you can experience a new reality of buoyancy, lightness of being, the intuitive knowing that there is always a way to take action toward your vision no matter what opinions others work to maintain.

Remember, you can always have your opinions back! If you take a break from your opinions, you are always free to take them back! Opinions will always be available when you want them. That is never going to be in question.

Just notice your capacity to shift perspectives, to go from opinion to no opinion. It is evidence of the true power you have as a human on this planet. You can shift at will. You can choose the path that opens up for you to move with grace toward integrity, or you can choose the path that requires you to pull out your metaphoric machete and perpetually clear the brambles of judgment. It’s just two different experiences - one is only better than another if you’re willing to maintain an opinion.