Openness to Experience: Is it a Wellbeing Plus?

This article describes what Openness to Experience is, outlines its wellbeing benefits and suggests how to integrate a bit more of it into your day-to-day.

Are you Open to Experience?

To what extent do you embrace novelty, variety and change? How often do you practise being curious, imaginative and creative?

These are all aspects of Openness to Experience, one of the Big 5 personality traits assessed in psychological testing. 

While I happen to score high on Openness to Experience, I suggest that, regardless of how natural this personality trait feels, you may gain potential wellbeing benefits by weaving a little more openness to experience into the fabric of your life.

A person open to experiences is intellectually curious and actively seeks out new and varied experiences.

What’s In It For You?

Research suggests that amplifying openness to experience:

1. Links to successful ageing outcomes and long-term health benefits

Scientists have found that openness to experience tends to decline from middle age, despite its interrelationship to successful ageing. Those more open to experience potentially live longer, have higher social wellbeing, are more stress resilient, feel more positive emotion and are more satisfied with their life.

2. Helps avoid positive well-being activities becoming stale

Happiness research discovered that variation is a key factor in whether activities we pursue continue to enhance our well-being or become ‘ho hum’ as we get used to them. In other words, by making a point of trying new experiences and varying our activities, we increase the chance that we will boost our happiness and prevent adaptation.

3. Contributes to a psychologically rich life

Other evidence found that openness to experience is a strong predictor of a psychologically rich life, with people leading such lives tending to think more holistically, be more curious and behave more flexibly, such as seeking out novel experiences.

4. Activates how receptive you are to opportunities

Research suggests that increasing your attention and openness to feelings, thoughts and the environment may help you tolerate ambiguity and support openness to new opportunities, even when you are not necessarily looking for them.  To quote a leader I coached recently:

During the coaching I found more opportunities have come to me. I think this reflects my development during the coaching process and highlights the benefits of coaching.

So What Can You Do?

To experiment with openness to experience, amp up your “seeking” system, which motivates exploration and learning.

What you do should be intentional, have personal relevance and prompt you to think about things in a different way.

The following ideas are suggestions only. Do what works for you.

Here are some ideas to start.

✔ Invest In Imagination

I recently read a young adult fiction book, Strike the Zither by Joan He, that got me imagining.

You might watch a film or show set in a fantasy world, take time to daydream, invent a recipe with ingredients from your fridge, try to picture your life in five years, wonder what jobs other people at your gym do, read a book set in the past or future.

✔ Activate Artistic

Visit a gallery or exhibition, go to the theatre or a performance, learn an instrument, paint or draw, design a card or invitation, redecorate a room, compile a favourite playlist, learn photography, arrange flowers, plan a garden bed.

✔ Vary Routine

Take a different route once a week for a month, try a new food or recipe each week, listen to different music, read a new book or feed, watch a series or movie that is not your usual viewing, do a crossword, play a board game, try a new cafe.

✔ Spur Spontaneous – do something unusual or that you have not done before. Dance, play, visit someone, participate in an event, call someone out of the blue, sing, volunteer, have a picnic, go away for a weekend, enrol in a class, book tickets to a show.

✔ Challenge, Expand or Change Perspective.

Travel somewhere new, watch a foreign language series, learn a language on Duolingo, join a new group, converse with someone very different to you, meditate, read about a different culture, research a new topic, learn a new skill.

If this topic has struck a chord, I’m keen to know what action you take or how you plan to infuse a bit more openness to experience in your day to day.