By Mary-Jane Liddicoat

Don't get me started on socks. I have lived in Korea for 10 years and it never ceases to amaze me the regularity with which people greet me with 'You're not wearing socks!'

As an Australian, I grew up among kids who prided themselves on not wearing shoes, even thongs (flip flops), let alone socks, all summer. No shoes/socks = summer freedom is deeply embedded in my psyche.

Until I arrived in Korea I had never thought about it. Then, instead of hearing '``hello, how are you?" or my ideal greeting ``wow you look great!," I was regularly told ``'You're not wearing socks!"

This fascinated and annoyed me no end. Why would anyone care about whether I wore socks or not? I am quite grown up and know when my feet are cold (in winter). I even know when my outfit needs socks to complete it (usually never).

'What a lot of time people waste thinking about socks!' I thought. Of course ignoring the fact that I too was spending a lot of time thinking about socks...

Sure I understood that pointing your bare feet at someone was impolite in Korea. But that's not what I was doing, nor did that seem to be what lay behind the question. The questions seemed to stem from a deeply ingrained, habitual reflex. Like the greeting ``have you eaten yet?" to express caring for someone.

It was exactly the same kind of ingrained habit that caused me to ``not" wear socks (which, by the way, I then started doing deliberately - even if my feet were cold - to see what would happen. No prizes for guessing what happened, including that my feet froze.)

Then I realised that both ``to sock" or ``not to sock" were really just interesting points of view. Neither was right or wrong. Neither was good or bad.

And I wondered how much of life was like this? How much time did we spend trying to convert ``sock" people to the joys, benefits, values, the ``rightness" of our ``no sock" point of view?

How much of this habitual, unconscious attachment to a particular point of view (sock/no sock) was causing our trauma, drama, conflict and stress?

Science has proven that conflict and stress can cause disease (and we've seen them cause wars, death and destruction), while laughter strengthens the body's immune system, reduces pain, and relieves physical tension and stress.

Why would we hang on to such a potentially destructive, illness-causing habit? Perhaps it has simply never occurred to us we could change it?

What if, instead, we recognised our points of view as just that: interesting points of view? What if every time we heard someone say something that annoyed us, or was different from our own point of view, we said to ourselves: 'interesting point of view' without judgement or any emotional ``right/wrong" heat? Would our annoyance, conflict, drama and stress disappear? Would new possibilities open up?

I'm not saying you can't have a point of view. Sure, have a point of view, and be aware that it's yours and be in allowance of other people having the same freedom.

Is there really a rightness to any point of view? Who knows? But if you don't recognise that points of view different to your own can exist, you shut out a whole number of possibilities.

Once upon a time, people who thought the world was flat were 'right' and those who had a different point of view were crazy people on a suicide mission.

So am I going to wear socks next time I go out? That depends on my point of view of the weather at the time.

The writer is Korea country head of LOHAS (Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability) Asia Pacific, and a director of the Australian Chamber of Commerce in Korea. She is also a personal and professional development specialist and can be reached at www.healthyhomes.asia or www.lohas-asia.org.