When we are accustomed to defending ourselves, it feels scary to test any other mode of operation.
The biggest downside of having strong defenses is that we often end up holding two things at arm length: the things that we don’t want in our life (this is understandable and strategic) and things that could be good for us (things our old filter has blocked because they don’t yet know how to categorize it).
If we are willing to consider the possibility that our filter is outdated, we might surprise ourselves by what could evolve if we let new things/people/ideas in.