Navigating Worldviews with Curiosity and Peace

Your worldview is the lens through which you interpret reality—shaping your beliefs, your relationships, your choices, and even your future. In this episode of Default to Yes, Juli explores why it’s so important to intentionally understand your own worldview and how doing so can free you to approach others with peace, curiosity, and confidence.

We’ll unpack:

• What worldview really means, according to experts in philosophy, psychology, and neuroscience.
• The core components of worldview: how we see ourselves, others, the world, and the future.
• The influences that quietly shape our worldview—family, culture, spirituality, trauma, and education.
• A side-by-side look at common worldviews (Theism, Naturalism, Humanism, Postmodernism, Eastern thought, and more).
• Why clarity brings resilience: how knowing your worldview anchors you so you aren’t shaken by difference.

Juli also shares a powerful reflection on how clarity can lead to compassion—and how John 3:16–17 reframes worldview through the lens of love, not condemnation.

Whether you’re exploring your own beliefs, coaching others, or simply seeking deeper connection, this episode will help you stand firm in your clarity while opening your heart to curiosity and peace.

👉 Don’t forget to subscribe, share this episode with a friend, and download the free Clarity Guide linked in the show notes to begin mapping out your own worldview.

Download your World View Worksheet Here. 

Transcript

0:59

Welcome to another extraordinary week. I wanna talk about something that has really helped me in being able to navigate. Different relationships that hold very different views and be able to navigate with curiosity and confidence to really have those conversations and maintain the relationships with people that we disagree with. This is something that is really prominent in our culture today and always has been. And maybe we can struggle with getting good at it, especially when we are bombarded by media who profit off of. sound bites that make us angry and it makes it really hard for us to take the other point of view because they have used verbiage and a rhythm that is designed to make us angry and to take a side. Let's take a moment and I'm gonna invite you on this journey with me as we talk about something that quietly shapes every decision that we make, every relationship that we build, every reaction that we have with the world around us. And that is worldview. Now, your worldview is the lens that you look through. It's the framework that helps you make sense of reality. And here's the truth, if you don't intentionally understand and shape your worldview, it will be shaped for you by culture, by family of origin, by social media, or just really even the loudest voices around you. So again, it's really good to be intentional about this because it'll create that healthy mindset so that when somebody close to you disagrees with you, you'll be able to have a conversation or be able to understand where they're coming from. Philosophers divide worldview as that comprehensive framework of beliefs about reality that ground and guide our lives. Think of it like the operating system running in the background of your brain. It influences how you see yourself, how you see others, and how you see the world. Purpose and direction. You all know someone who is extremely positive and maybe you're not so much or extremely negative and you're not so much. This all plays into worldview and how we see the world. Do we see the world as something that is working for us or against us? This is a big part of worldview as well. Experts like James se describes worldview as a commitment, a fundamental orientation of the heart. It's not just a list of ideas and neuroscience adds that, it's largely unconscious until we bring it into awareness. Meaning that you may not realize how much it's steering your choices. You may think that you're making choices based on when you learn things or when things come up, but you're probably really not. So why it matters to define your own. When you know your worldview, you gain a lot of clarity and when you know why you believe what you believe, this does two powerful things. It keeps you one from being easily shaken when someone challenges your perspective, and two, it allows you to be curious about others' worldviews without feeling threatened. It is very therapeutic for me to have someone state, this is my worldview. because then I can understand the construct and the context in which they are coming at all of their other opinions. Imagine conversations where you don't have to prove or defend, but instead you can listen and explore and even learn because you are anchored in what your view of the world is. And that's what's happening more and more for me as I define my worldview and as I. Begin to understand how to identify the worldview of others so that I can even ask them, is this your worldview? So that I can understand where they're coming from because sometimes we have conversations with people and we're saying the same words. This happens especially in the realm of religion and faith. We could be using the same words and meaning very different things or have in mind very different outcomes or actions that justify those beliefs. that's when it's important for us just to get clear on where we are and where the person is that we're talking to. And if we understand that worldview just is not, maybe let's take some judgment out of it. We might disagree with it, but it is what it is for that person. Understanding is gonna be really helpful. So your worldview is formed by multiple layers. Family of origin, the stories that you heard growing up, culture and media, those are the messages that you absorb every day, Education and mentors. That voice that shaped your thinking as you were growing up, maybe in a time that you weren't being super intentional about what you were learning or incorporating. Then faith and spirituality, your beliefs about meaning and morality and destiny. Those were maybe even handed down to you through the generations and you maybe you've never questioned them because there's just so much a part of you. Experiences and trauma, those moments that challenged or reshaped your perspective. Maybe there was an accident or a traumatic death that found your foundation got rocked and you had to go back to that. Shaping your mind began to shape how you view the world. I know that when my father-in-law died in surgery, it was so abrupt and so shocking that it all of a sudden made other mishaps possible. So once something happens to you, it makes other things possible in your brain. they just seem more possible all of a sudden. these influences can either build clarity or create confusion if they're left unexamined. Now, how do you define your worldview intentionally? So let's say you're listening to this and you're just really not sure what you would say. if I asked you what is your worldview? You wouldn't be able to answer that. And that is no judgment here because that's not an easy thing. Philosophers, of course, spend a lot of time on that. We aren't really taught to identify that or to label it Usually we can figure that out about other people by watching, maybe where they go to church and getting to know their family and things like that. But here's some guiding questions that you can ask that are adapted from philosophy and coaching and psychology as you identify your worldview. So first of all, what is real? Do you believe reality is purely material or is there a spiritual dimension? A second question, who am I? What is the nature and purpose of human beings? Three, what is good? Where does morality come from? And four, what happens after life? What do you believe about death and eternity and legacy? How should we live? What principles guide those daily decisions? I encourage you to write down your answers and just start writing even if you don't know where to start, even imperfectly. That creates that clarity and self-awareness, and I think you'll be amazed at what you learn. From a brain perspective, worldview acts like a filter in your prefrontal cortex. It shapes perception before you're even aware of it. Really. And this is why two people can witness the same event, interpret and interpret it completely different. Research shows that when you articulate your beliefs and values, it reduces the amygdala reactivity, that fear and threat response, and increases cognitive flexibility. The translation of that is that you can listen to someone else's viewpoint without spiraling into defensiveness, but this is something that you practice intentionally. We have to move from our amygdala to our prefrontal cortex, and that takes some intention. It's easy to be reflexive and reactive and just function in the amygdala and in the emotion. But once we, it will, you will, but we all want to, we sometimes just don't switch over into that. Prefrontal cortex. Once you know your worldview, you're free to lean into that curiosity about others, and you don't need to change them. You don't need to fear being changed and you can ask. Tell me more about how you came to believe that. What experiences shaped that perspective for you? Now, they still might be operating their amygdala, so know that when you ask these questions, you might always get that prefrontal cortex answer. They might totally react outta their amygdala. They'll see where you're going and fly off the handle and have a very emotional response, I have not done this perfectly, and I have friends and coworkers that have had conversations with me and I haven't executed this completely. Tell me more about how you came to that and what experience shaped that perspective for you. That curiosity becomes a bridge instead of a battlefield. I hope that you will take this into consideration because this has helped me so much, and I will say that I was a little fearful about an event that I was attending because I knew that I was not perfectly aligned. I knew that I would meet up with a lot of different worldviews and. In the moment, sometimes those things I didn't want to also damage relationships that I've had for a very long time. So this was something that I got really intentional about and I have to say that it went very well, I wanna go into, if you're a little confused, I'll go into kind of briefly some of the different worldviews that I'm talking about, just to put this into context because some of the more common ones we've got a. There are several common worldviews that people tend to identify with. You could think of them as broad frameworks or big stories about reality. People may hold hybrids or variations of this, but most worldviews fall into recognizable categories. Some of the ones that are more widely discussed as, first of all, theism, God-centered worldviews, and this is the worldview that believes in a personal God who created and sustains the universe. Life has ultimate purpose, moral order given by God, and those examples are Christianity and Judaism and Islam. Then there's naturalism. That's secular or scientific materialism. This is reality is only physical. There's no spiritual or supernatural dimension, and truth is discovered through science and reason and observation and life's meaning. Self-created, not divinely given. So pantheism is another one. God is everything. God and the universe are one. The divine is in all things, emphasis on harmony and unity and inner awakening. We see this a lot in Hinduism and a lot of the new age spiritualities. I think maybe Buddhism falls into this as well. So you see we have also a blend of some of that theism. Pantheism. That might not be a God-centered worldview. It might be more of that God is everything pantheism. Then there's postmodernism. That's truth is relative. It's more skeptical of absolute truth. Truth is shaped by culture and language and perspective encourages questioning of power and tradition and meta narratives. There's meaning is local and personal rather than universal. then there's deism, which believes in a creator God who set the universe in motion but does not intervene. And the there's reason rather than revelation is the guide for life and popular is the enlightenment era. So then there's humanism, which emphasizes human dignity, freedom, and potential values, human reasons, ethics and justice without reliance on the divine, and then their secular humanism. It's common in modern education and culture. So can you start to see where some of these worldviews play into some of our conversations and culture? Why we're having such a hard time understanding why someone can accept this or that. Eastern worldviews is another one. that's Buddhism probably Teo, Taoism, Confucianism. that focus on balance and enlightenment and harmony and cycles of life often emphasize that inner transformation detachment compassion and they tend to see suffering as something to be transcended through awareness or discipline. And then there's the tribal or animistic worldviews that's the reality is filled with spirits and ancestors, unseen forces, communities, and rituals, maintain that balance with the spiritual world. And that's found in a lot of indigenous cultures. So again, why this matters is where people are coming from when they talk about meaning, purpose, and morality. And why Conversations sometimes feel like talking past each other. We are making different assumptions about the reality that's at play. And also helps us to really see how we can cultivate curiosity instead of fear when we meet someone whose worldview is unlike ours. I hope that some of this, will help you. Again, it's that view of self, view of others, view of world, view of future. All of those things are going to influence our relationships and how we identify with each other. So I did a side by side worldview comparison and that's where a lot of those notes came from. I'm gonna make it a download so that you can as you're journaling, see what the difference is and where maybe your worldview overlaps with some of these things that you've maybe never even considered. It might be helpful to you. So I'm gonna put the link in the show notes you can download. It's just a side-by-side worldview comparison. That will also put you on my email list so you get all these episodes sent to you. and then we can also connect that way if you want to otherwise download it. And then take yourself off the subscribe list, whatever you want to do. So I hope you'll share this episode with your friends so that you can start to dialogue about this and we can maybe use this to make the world a better place. each of us carries a worldview that can be shaped by our stories and our struggles and our hopes. And while those worldviews may look very different, there's something profoundly human about all of us asking the same questions. Who am I? Why am I here? What is good? Where are we going? When we pause to notice our own lens, something just shifts. We don't have to be shaken anymore by the difference or threatened by another perspective and said, we can be rooted in our own clarity and for you to learn and lean into curiosity. Maybe we'll reshape our worldview based on something else that we learn. Imagine what would happen instead of defending walls. We built bridges if we listened, not to argue, but to understand if we allowed diversity of thought to expand and not diminish our shared humanity. For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. I'm actually revealing my worldview to you right now because I do want to have a posture that is aligned with my creator. God's posture towards the world is love and not rejection. The purpose of Jesus coming was not condemnation, but rescue and restoration. I've always seen myself As somebody, a reconciler, I've always considered my life as being a ministry of reconciliation, and I hope that comes through in my action. and I am still on a very input perfect journey in that way. This first sets us up to receive an invitation to receive eternal life rooted in love, regardless of your worldview. And if that's hard to access for you, it ties beautifully into worldview conversations. If your worldview is shaped by love, rather than fear or condemnation, you'll see yourself and others differently through that lens of dignity and grace and hope My prayer and my hope and my challenge to you is today is this. Stand firmly in the worldview that you've chosen with peace. even if it's different from mine. Stand in that with peace. Look at others through the lens of dignity and acceptance and know that clarity is not the end of the story. It's the beginning of deeper connection. It's the beginning of learning and curiosity. May you walk with courage and curiosity and compassion, and may your worldview anchor you in peace while your heart remains open to wonder as you go out every day and default to, yes. Your extraordinary self.