SELF-COACHING EXPERIMENT: Rebecca's Nepal Mount Everest Trekking Diary 11/19: STRANGERS ARE FRIENDS!

To children we often say: "Don't trust strangers, they could be mad or do something bad to you". And then, we are listening or reading a lot of horror stories in the media. And naturally, as parents, we want to protect our children and to educate them to be cautious.

And what is taught as a small child often continues in adulthood. I meet people in my daily work, which are fundamentally critical to strangers in principle, because they could harm you. They don't question whether there is a specific reason or explanation for this fear. They are mistrusting, simply because they learned it and developed the belief: " Other people are mistrustfully bad and can be harmful."

But is that really true? What if these other people in the vast majority of cases are exactly like ourselves, only with a different skin color, statute or cultural background. What if they have exactly the same desires, fears and anxieties as ourselves? Wouldn't that change our beliefs? What if you turn these assumptions on the contrary... maybe they would be like this: "People are good and friendly in principle. You can trust them because they're friendly. They want to help you." How does this belief feel, compared with the one above? Different, better? Or it's hard for you to believe it.

I'll tell you my personal belief: STRANGERS ARE FRIENDS! And I can confirm that since I have established this attitude, I find friends all over the world, including here in Nepal. Cordial, honest, benevolent, helping and friendly encounters I experience here almost daily, among the population and the group. Now maybe you think that was luck or coincidence?! Then I tell you it's been working for me this was already for years!!!

Of course, a certain caution always remains, and that is good. And I never do anything that doesn't feel good or right. But every time I approach people like friends myself, they also treat me like a friend in return. Wouldn't it be great to experience this all the time and be able to influence it yourself?

Try the following little exercise: Think of each, perhaps difficult encounter, inside yourself: "You are my friend!" Just tell this to yourself in your mind. Nothing else. And then watch what happens... ;D