Curiosity is the key to change
I recently had an event where the ice breaker question was “what opinion would you die on the hill for?”. My first thought was, that’s so absurd. Who would hold an opinion so steadfast and on what topic? To my surprise, people started calling out different beliefs and opinions. Some of these beliefs and opinions were so extrinsic from their own lives. Someone even brought up they’d die fighting that the dress was white in the blue vs green dress saga (sorry but no-one cares what colour it is).
It got me thinking, where is the space for growth and change, if we are so set on opinions we’ve formed (often influenced from media). In order for change to happen, we need to foster a sense of curiosity in the world. We live in such a busy and information filled world, it’s easy to neglect curiosity in lieu of efficiency and assumptions.
The thing is, in my experience curiosity is the key to unlock compassion, reflection and change.
The biggest game-changer in my own life has been to adopt a healthy level of curiosity about myself. It’s helped me to break a lot of the bad habit patterns and even simply to better understand how my life has unfolded. I spend time to ask myself:
Why do I do the things I do? Why do I react to situations in certain ways? Why do I feel like this right now?
It’s been revolutionary because it’s only when I truly started being curious that I’ve been able to stop myself from identifying with the experiences, and simply see them as that: experiences. Opportunities to learn, grow and change.
When you no longer identify yourself with the experiences, you begin to think like this:
I’m angry-> I feel anger. I’m stressed-> I feel stress. I’m hopeless-> I feel hopeless right now.
The underlying idea is, the experience is fleeting and it will change.
Same goes for the positive emotions. It helps in making you appreciate them that much more, by knowing it is for a brief moment of time.
We may think we are curious people, but it takes a certain level of discomfort and discipline to practice it on ourselves.
The most interesting thing in the world shouldn’t be “what did the celebrities wear on the red carpet?” or “what happened on the latest season of xyz”, it is “Why do we do the things we do?”
This question really opens the door to consider that maybe we aren’t always right. It humanises other people and allows us to better understand ourselves and each other.
