“Of course, there’s a clown nose in my nose.”

This was 2 ½ year old Lilah’s mantra as she made the rounds at my parent’s Christmas Eve party.

We were delighted.

“What a funny little creature she is!”

“The things she says!”

“Where did she come from???”

 
But when I heard her telling my grandmother about it again, many hours later – I started to wonder…

“Lilah, have you put something in your nose?”
 

Into the bathroom, tweezers and flashlight in hand…and just there…the tiniest red pompom I have ever seen.

There WAS a clown nose in her nose.

How often do we discount what someone tells us because they’re young, or old, or because what they’re saying just doesn’t make sense to us?

A client of mine suffered from an auto-immune disease for 10 years while doctors tried to convince her that it was all in her head.

We make snap associations and judgements about everything we see and hear – and that’s OK. In fact, it’s a natural part of the way our brains work.

It becomes a problem however, when those judgements turn into a false sense of certainty.

The next time you catch yourself shrugging off something that someone tells you or mentally shutting them down, try to lean in, get curious, and suspend what you think you know.

You may be surprised by what you learn.