More Curiosity, Please!
Finding opportunities, allowing gifts, and living more fully in the energy of curiosity
The most bountiful and beautiful spaces are rooted in open-hearted curiosity. Think of any recent moment, experience, class, or event that felt expansive to you… where you felt connected, at ease being yourself, perhaps with glimmers of joy or appreciation. Reflect on this moment and wonder where and how curiosity was there, too. Did you bring curiosity with you? Did you find it inside an interaction? Was there something about how the space was held that potentiated a depth of wonder?
Curiosity is a way of being. And it grows each time we notice and practice it. More than an act of love, curiosity is love. It operates on a current of delight as light. We can most readily access this current when we are in an active state of being curious.
Curiosity is not romantic or something extra to play around with during free time after work. It’s not unrealistic or too soft for the “problems” of today. It’s not just for children. Curiosity is always exactly what is needed in a moment, especially those of burden, pain, anger, sorrow, or other strong emotion or feeling,
Currently, we are witness to complexities of division, war, abuse of power, restriction on bodily autonomy, centralized control, and the effects of trauma, isolation, shame, illness, polarization, and un-wholeness. We witness this everywhere—far removed and filtered through various versions of news, at a local community gathering, across our dinner table, and inside our own self-talk, imagination, and dream.
Yet curiosity is always present. All we need to do is remember it is here and choose it. This is where the practice is. It’s in the choosing. So, we must ask ourselves: When do I choose curiosity and when do I choose judgment?
It’s wonderful to talk about being curious and want more curiosity in the world. It’s lovely to support more curiosity-based programs for children’s learning. It’s beautiful to bring curiosity into our parties, celebrations, and times of feeling good. Yes, and…
Oh, the expansion and radical shifts that are possible each time we choose to bring curiosity to a moment, especially when we believe we’re right or feel a determined urge to dig in our heels and take a side—the moments when we believe we don’t need to be curious, and feel righteous in our decision not to be.
Although a choice is a small thing and we are capable of making oodles of choices easily throughout our days, some kinds of choices take a lot of practice to become habits, especially choices for joy, love, liberation, and goodness (which many have learned to view as scarce and not easily accessible).
Each of our small choices is a precessional moment with potential beyond what we can see. It’s possible for all of us to choose curiosity more often inside our days if we focus on it and practice together. I thought it might be helpful to share some of the ongoing ways I practice saying yes to more curiosity in my days. Maybe one of these practices will resonate with you and maybe you have others that you’d like to share, too.
Hmm… I wonder what you know of the world?
When I see someone (or a group) making a different choice than me about how to live their lives right now, I invite myself to wonder about what they know. I shift to wondering when I catch myself in an immediate thought reaction like “whoa!” or “why are you doing that?” or “you must only watch/read ___” or “that’s so sad” or “ugh, really? That’s ridiculous!” When I wonder about what they know instead, even without talking with them, I notice the energy shift immediately. Curiosity brings in a healing energy that works beyond the realm of fixed ideas. It opens things up, and heightens the vibrations of everything. It’s all quite quick, especially if you remember to ask it before your mind starts spinning its drama loops.
Dance it!
When I feel something strongly… like a big dose of anger, fear, dread, unbearable sorrow, or hopelessness of “what is happening in this world!? Grrr…,” I’ve learned that there’s deep power in tapping into this energy to express it freely outside of words. Sometimes I draw, sometimes I walk fast in my neighborhood, but there’s something especially powerful about dancing! I let my body feel the feeling as deeply as it wants/needs… I let my body move from its wisdom… I let my body invite in curiosity through its bends, circles, shakes, stomps, flow, and reach. When I say that this is transformative, that word isn’t enough. Curiosity loves movement and play and something profound happens when we fully embrace a feeling, when we say “YES, let me learn from you!” to a burst of anger or a thick dose of heaviness. Our feelings are invitations to venture beyond their starting place. When we don’t turn a feeling into a story built from words with architectures of old meanings, we have access to a bounty of wisdom held in our bodies that guide is into new modes of expression and creation. [If you’re interested in this “expression outside of words” space for children, too, check out last month’s essay: Let Children Know.]
Maintain neutral energy.
I take care every day to ground my energy and keep myself in a neutral field. It’s from here, in a deeply connected and congruent place with myself, where I share and create with others. Neutral energy is deeply misunderstood in mainstream storytelling. The word “neutral” is often characterized as “complicity” or “lack of care.” Neutral energy is not about inaction, lack of advocacy, or avoiding an issue. In fact, it supports more action, advocacy, and creative solutions. To stay in neutral energy is to take responsibility for your own energy, to take care not to react or project, to not get swept up in extreme positive or negative dramas, to be present and aware, and make clear choices towards creating a more beautiful world. Operating with neutral energy as you hold deep care for issues important to you, you can call your government representatives, sign five petitions, re-invest your money, speak up at a community meeting, write something to share, turn off your TV, speak your truth to a friend, read a pile of books to a child, take a walk, plant a flower, and create something nutritious to eat. Your actions in the world expand and become more impactful when you teach your energy to remain neutral and not get tugged into a flurry of social media spin, lunchroom gossip, or news-advertisement loops.
Connect with nature.
Being with nature has always been the easiest way for me to connect with curiosity—to delight in a cloud, watch a squirrel, wonder about a nest. I think this is true for many people. Yet the potential of what curiosity can teach us through nature is endless and I often wonder if I’ve even scratched the surface of its playful unknowing. One practice that’s helped me access more of the curiosity energy held in nature is to ask more direct questions to nature (including to my own body as nature). Whether I’m inside with a plant, my cat, a shadow, or a windowed glimpse of a bird, or outside in my garden, on a walk by the railroad tracks, or in a forest thick with trees, I talk to nature (often out loud, but also in my thoughts). I name what I notice and appreciate. And I ask a lot of questions. Directly to a tree or squirrel or worm or crumpled leaf. I connect with one creature or one small section of earth, and say things such as: What do you know? How do you know? What do you dream? Tell me something outside of time. What’s going on right now? What do you wish people could see? What would you like me to see? Tell me a story. Teach me something I can’t understand but need to know.
What has happened for me is that creatures (including objects and elements of nature) now communicate with me all the time. I am tapped into the energy of curiosity through them, and I feel like I receive my most significant guidance (my constant news stream) through nature. It’s a lovely way to receive significant shifts of perspective on small issues of the day and large world-wide events. Sometimes in our appreciation and play outside in nature, we forget that we can connect with nature in deeper ways, ask our biggest questions, and receive beautiful answers that are far better than any we could find in our minds (or in the newspapers).
Curiosity is a way of being. And it grows each time we notice and practice it.
More than an act of love, curiosity is love.
Curiosity is always present. All we need to do is remember it is here and choose it.
This is where the practice is. It’s in the choosing.
It’s possible for all of us to choose curiosity more often inside our days if we focus on it and practice together.
Please remember that none of this is about judgment. The last thing curiosity wants you to do is judge yourself for when you “should have” been more curious. Forgiveness grows from curiosity, too. Add that to your bountiful basket of things to wonder about!
love+light, Melissa
