Keep Open - How this phrasal verb changes everything.

This phrasal verb changes everything. Everything. EVERYTHING. 

From Brazil to Columbia to China to Madagascar, English language learners experience the same frustration when it comes to mastering phrasal verbs. 

In a nutshell, phrasal verbs are a combination of a verb and one or more adverbial or prepositional particles that turn the verb into a figurative phrase. 

Take the word ‘keep,’ for example. “Keep off,” “keep out,” “keep on keeping on.”  There are at least 28 phrasal verbs that use the word “keep.” While these endless turns of phrase roll off the tongue among us native English speakers, they practically choke foreign language learners.  Listening to radio, watching TV and immersive experiences are direct channels to framing reference for learning the endlessness of idiomatic expressive English. That’s because phrasal verbs are contextual idiomatic chunks of parlance. English is literally packed with phrasal verbs. “Packed,” get it? “Get it.” Yep, phrasal verbs pop up all the time. 

“Keep open” stands out as rule number one for developing one’s creativity. 

The purpose of keeping open is to defer judgement and to delay any decision making. In doing so, you are better able to discover what might be. Keep open and you enter the world of  possibility, the language of creativity. Ponder possibility and the opportunity to shape outcome emerges. 

Deferring judgement is powerful. Even a short pause lets something incubate.  Pause briefly to absorb what just occurred. Pausing means this: I am not letting my gut reaction takeover. I will take this in. I might even breathe on this for four seconds. Remember box breathing?  I could respond, maybe with a question, maybe with some curiosity, maybe with more listening. 

As native English speakers, phrasal verbs are automated for us. Equally, so many of us gut react to just about everything. That mess in the bathroom. Again? How might you reply to that? React with a volume of discontent and chances are it will get ugly with the guilty party. Choose to reply with a response instead. Responses reflect curiosity, and an openness to what might be.  Maybe it was a craft experiment in the bathroom. Or maybe somebody simply forgot to clean up after themselves. Yes, perhaps again. Keeping open can keep you calm enough to shape an amenable outcome for all parties involved. Learn to defer judgement and everything can change if not for the better, then for the calmer and variety of possible end results.  

Three quick strategies will help you to get your creativity on. First, replace a gut reaction with a pause.  Absorb what just happened. Be quiet.  2. Take it in with a breath, two even to let automatic emotions pass through.  3. Choose to respond, perhaps with a follow up question or a ‘’tell me more.” Keeping open is the difference between intentionally suspending judgement and an autopilot unconscious knee jerk reactive reply.  

Practice keeping open regularly in order to shift toward creative thinking. And what if you practice keeping open so much that you consciously become unconscious in the language of creativity? Well then you would have a creative thinking skill that truly can change everything. For creativity is the language of possibilities.

Practice keeping open for expanding into the dimension for what might be.