If you haven’t given some old beliefs a bit of thought, changed your mind at least once, or budged on an issue lately, you might be getting cobwebs in your brain. Changing your opinion doesn’t mean you’re wishy washy or weak, as some people would say; instead, it means that you are still learning, still becoming informed, and still thinking. In short, you are still alive!

My beliefs have been challenged quite a bit throughout my lifetime. I’ve gone through a violent period when, as a young teen, I was militantly anti-man, pro-death penalty, and pro-war. My reasoning was that men caused conflict so they deserved to die in it, which would leave women to run the world peacefully—and that “an eye for an eye” was fair. I also went through a heavy Christian phase, where I read a lot about the religion, had a teen Bible, and questioned lots of people about the religion. (Come to think of it, I’ve done this with many religions, and am currently perusing Unitarian Universalism…) I have since changed my mind on these issues, as well as many others, quite a bit, which I consider to be a healthy part of life.

Many of us, however, get so stuck within some of our beliefs that we start to become narrow-minded. For example, I was so stuck on disliking George W. Bush during his presidency (I still kind of get sick thinking about the whole fiasco) that I started disliking all Republicans I met, which is pretty much half of the country! And given that I live in the Midwest, most of the people I meet are conservative. I can’t write off people just because they have a different political ideology than I do. I reasoned with myself, saying that Republicans are racist, sexist, and anti-woman, anti-gay, and anti-anyone who’s not a white male. And you know what? I do think that many of them are this way. But many are not; many are simply adhering to old Republican values—values stemming from a group who freed the slaves and wanted to monitor the country’s spending, not spend trillions on war. I do know plenty of Republican people, particularly women, after all, who have hearts of gold. (Of course, I still have issues with my old beliefs here sometimes and want to scream, “Then why won’t you support health care for all of the people you say you care about? Why do you blame single moms for bad things that happen to them? Why don’t you support women’s health?!”)

The point is, changing your mind isn’t a sign of weakness; it’s a sign of growth and development. Examine some of your beliefs. Which ones feel like they don’t fit? Maybe some of them were simply carried over from your parents’ beliefs. Do you really feel the same way they do? Challenge what you believe. Do some research. Talk to experts in the field of the issue(s) you look at. Maybe you’ll find that you actually feel a different way—and that’s okay!