CURIOSITY

This week has been OMazing.   A chahahahange of heART. Enthusiasm.  MOMentum. And lots of it - woohoo.

Thahahank you so much for your prayers and kind words for Mom and Dad.

Mom is in the hospital again - this time for observation and research for this red bump that formed around her stitches.  I told Mom the Doctors are going to have to pay her for her time at the hospital.   Please keep her in your prayers as she discovers what a strong OMazing Mama Goddess she is and always has been.

This week "doing the practice" included connecting with the Earth.  Spending more time outdoors in this lovely Florida weather. Hanging with the trees - enjoying the shade they provide and the wonderful breeze.  Getting down on the ground and laying in the grass.  Planting my feet in the Earth and watching the clouds dance in the sky.   Being still and observing ants and squirrels and spiders and birds, including a pair of woodpeckers who are going to nest in a hollow palm tree trunk on our swale.  I love being curious and learning new things.

One of the most reliable and overlooked keys to happiness is cultivating and exercising our innate sense of curiosity. That’s because curiosity — a state of active interest or genuinely wanting to know more about something — creates an openness to unfamiliar experiences, laying the groundwork for greater opportunities to experience discovery, joy and delight.

According to Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi, one of the founders of the field of positive psychology and a pioneering researcher in the area of flow, we can develop our curiosity (and fight boredom) by making a conscious effort to direct our attention to something in particular in our environment.

Everyone possesses curiosity to some degree. People differ according to the strength and breadth of their curiosity and their willingness to act on it.  Curiosity is something that can be nurtured and developed. With practice, we can harness the power of curiosity to transform everyday tasks into interesting and enjoyable experiences. We can also use curiosity to intentionally create wonder, intrigue and play out of almost any situation or interaction we encounter.

It all starts with wanting to know more. 

Curiosity, at its core, is all about noticing and being drawn to things we find interesting. It’s about recognizing and seizing the pleasures that novel experiences offer us, and finding novelty and meaning even in experiences that are familiar.

When we are curious, we see things differently; we use our powers of observation more fully. We sense what is happening in the present moment, taking note of what is, regardless of what it looked like before or what we might have expected it to be.

We feel alive and engaged, more capable of embracing opportunities, making connections, and experiencing moments of insight and meaning — all of which provide the foundation for a rich, aware and satisfying life experience.

Here are some important ways to tune into our curiosity and enhance our well-being and the quality of our lives:

Build knowledge. Knowledge opens our eyes to interesting gaps about what we don’t know. The child who can name 45 states is much more interested in discovering the five he or she doesn’t know than the child with only three states in the brain bank. The person learning to play the piano will hear more nuances in a piano concerto than the person who doesn’t know treble clef from bass clef. If you want to be curious, start accumulating knowledge. 

Thrive on uncertainty. We rarely look forward to anxiety and tension, but research shows that these mixed emotions are often what lead to the most intense and longest-lasting positive experiences. People who take part in new and uncertain activities are happier and find more meaning in their lives than people who rely on the familiar.  Most of us mistakenly believe that certainty will make us happier than uncertainty. Imagine that you go to a football game knowing that your team will win. Most people would say that, yes, that would make them happy. Yet knowing the outcome in advance takes away the thrill of watching each play and the good tension that comes with not knowing what will happen next. We forget about the pleasures of surprise and uncertainty.

Reconnect with play. We can add play and playfulness to almost any task, and the attitude of play naturally builds interest and curiosity. 

Find the unfamiliar in the familiar. One way to become more curious is to intentionally circumvent expectations, labels and assumptions about “seemingly” familiar activities and events. It’s easy to prejudge an activity because we think we have seen it before or avoid an activity entirely because we expect it to be boring or unpleasant.  The goal of discovering the unfamiliar in the familiar is to suspend judgments and attend to how things are, not how you expect them to be.

With tasks that are new to you or that you haven’t even considered, ask yourself if you can find one thing that is surprising to you as a newcomer to this particular activity.

These ways to increase our curiosity are adapted from a book called Curious? Discover the Missing Ingredient to a Fulfilling Life by Todd Kashdan, PhD (HarperCollins, 2009). 

Our innate curiosity can easily become dulled by the tedium and familiarity of daily routine. Reawakening it starts with shifting how we pay attention — even in situations we’ve experienced a thousand times before. Here are some tips for shifting our attention and boosting curiosity.

Research suggests that experiencing novelty is an important factor in both health and happiness. Opportunities for novelty exist virtually everywhere, but to discover and make the most of them, we need to develop our “curiosity muscle” through more regular and intense use. Here are some easy ways to begin expanding your own curiosity capacity:

When waking: Look with “fresh eyes.” Choose to see some things in your home, partner or family that you may have overlooked before.

When talking: Strive to remain open to whatever transpires — without assuming, categorizing, judging or reacting. Ask more questions and listen with care.

When driving: Instead of zoning out on a daily commute, make a point of actively anticipating what the drivers around you are likely to do next. Stay aware of what’s ahead and on the horizon.

When working: Look for opportunities to challenge and apply yourself in ways that spark your interest and produce great results. Ask questions like: What’s interesting here? How can I make this more fun?

When exercising: Instead of going through the motions, put your attention on the intricacies and sensations of your own movement and on whatever sights, sounds and smells are within range.

Start by devoting five minutes each day to your curiosity practice. After a week, add a little more time to your training — while cooking, eating, cleaning, bathing, paying bills, sitting on your porch and so on. 

Kashdan invites his readers to become "Curious Explorers" and re-learn the valuable skills seeking out and appreciating what is new.

"When we experience curiosity, we are willing to leave the familiar and routine and take risks, even if it makes us feel anxious and uncomfortable," said Kashdan. "Curious explorers are comfortable with the risks of taking on new challenges. Instead of trying desperately to explain and control our world, as a curious explorer we embrace uncertainty, and see our lives as an enjoyable quest to discover, learn and grow."

One of the great barriers that prevents us from delving into curiosity is fear. When faced with uncertainty or risk, it is much easier, and widely approved to stay confined in what is deemed to be safe. We don't leave dead end jobs to pursue our dreams without financial stability, we don't invest in learning to sky dive just for fun, and we don't even drive a new route to work. Why? Because we are afraid to let curiosity take the full reigns.

Would you like be a "Curious Explorer" with me this week? Here's what Kashdan recommends we do: 

1.   Try to notice little details of your daily routine that you never noticed before. 
2.   When talking to people, try to remain open to whatever transpires without judging/reacting. 
3.   Let novelty unfold and resist the temptation to control the flow. 
4.   Gently allow our attention to be guided by little sights, sounds or smells that come your way.

I love building my CURIOSITY muscle.  It's a constant exploration and research of what I think I know and what I am about to learn.  It opens my senses, sharpens my mind and creates awareness for me. 

Here's a little movie of one of our last days with Maxie Meow - she was so curious and it brought such joy to our hearts.