Curiosity as a Superpower

We must never forget to be open to the curiosity inside of us. It was there when we were kids. We were curious about everything. Everything we could see we wanted to explore because there was a promise of adventure there. As we get older, we become informed by others about the world around us. We go through a process of education that tells us what the world is, how the world is, what its boundaries are, what our boundaries are. We learn to believe this. By the time we are a fully developed adult, we take pride in the level of which we believe we “know” the world. And so, curiosity ceases to function. Like any unused muscle it weakens, and fades into the background.

Be curious. Be open to seeing the world in new ways.

And those days when we wake up and the world seems oh so similar to the days before. And we are tired of it and the idea of getting up and traveling to work, doing something we are not happy with, coming home and trying to find something a way to fill so much space, and it feels like dead space. That is why we want to fill it.

But if we can practice our curiosity, it grows again within us. It will want to take us out, out into the world, out into nature. And it will want to learn and grow and see what is just over the horizon, just over the hill. What does the stream at the bottom of the valley look like? How far can I see if I stand over here. And that curiosity is an energy, a state of mind, designed to connect us to the world. We feel that so strongly. When we were kids, we felt that magnetism to explore, that curiosity was boundless.

Curiosity is an invitation to experience the magic of connection.

Curiosity is an invitation to experience the magic of connection. And what there is available for us to connect with is infinite. When we open to our curiosity again, we see things we thought we knew, but in a whole new light. We see a tree and we think “I know what a tree is. It’s a big thing, tall, with leaves sticking out of it that fall off in winter. That is a tree!” So, we dismiss it, we are no longer curious.

Once that curiosity returns, we want to explore. We want to know how it withstands a storm, how it grows, how it breathes, where the matter of its body came from. We want to know what it connects to and what life it supports. We become curious about community in nature as we learn about the myriad connections that exist between everything we see. What is the life that flourishes within the ecosystem that it provides? We see the interconnectedness of things and we become curious about that.

That curiosity is a beautiful living energy in our consciousness. It deserves to be nourished and fostered. Curiosity is what helps us learn, what helps us grow, what helps us feel connected. We need it to feel alive in the world. With curiosity, we have no dead space. This is the return of the magic in the world, the magic we felt as kids.

Curiosity is also vital for our inner journey. It allows us to explore patterns of thought, reactions, and feelings. Whenever we feel an uncomfortable emotion, and we allow ourselves to explore it with curiosity instead of habit, we discover whole new aspects of ourselves and can engage with them in a constructive way. This curiosity may manifest as questions such as: “Why am I feeling this way? What is behind this thought or feeling? Why do I always feel like this when this happens? How can I respond differently?”. This is a way of relating to ourselves opens us up to new options to respond with and can free us from limiting habitual responses.

We can better understand curiosity if we imagine what life would be like without it. Imagine a world where curiosity does not exist. There would be no science, no exploration, very few new discoveries, no new thought or philosophy. We would accept everything just as it was without ever wondering if it could be any different. If something new or unforeseen happened, it would be observed but dismissed. It would not trigger an instinct to work out what or why. We would not experience a deep relationship with others, or with ourselves. We would not ask questions, and challenges would consistently defeat progress because we would not ask what we could do differently. We experience this when we meet the same lessons over and over and do not progress, because we don’t become curious about how we can learn, what we were doing wrong or how we could do it differently.

We can dampen our curiosity very easily. We can become afraid of the unknown and see it as a dangerous place. This would lead us to shut down our curiosity to preserve our safety. We can teach ourselves to believe that this is the better way because after all, our fear is keeping us safe. We make up sayings such as “curiosity killed the cat” as further reinforcement of our self-limiting beliefs. Obviously, we must temper curiosity with common sense. Saying to ourselves “I wonder what would happen if I licked my finger and stuck it in a plug socket?” is one thing, actually doing it is another. Yes, curiosity may have led many an explorer to their death, but others have broken through to new discoveries that would not have happened if they had not taken the risk. When we face the unknown, there may always be risk, but we would never explore new horizons if we let fear dominate us.

Fear will teach us to keep our head down, never look beyond the horizon or walk through new doorways to the unknown. It may keep us safe, but it will also keep us limited. We are hard wired for growth, and this means we need our curiosity and courage as well as wisdom and common sense.

Complacency and arrogance also limit curiosity. When we believe we know all about something, we rarely look closely or explore any new subtleties that may appear. We dismiss new opportunities for learning and growth because, certainty replaces curiosity. If a man is “most ignorant of what he’s most assured” he may never even be aware of how many new layers of meaning are waiting to be unravelled to further enrich his life.

Curiosity is a key to new learning, and new riches of experience and understanding. Curiosity heralds change and evolution. It is vital to a life worth living. So be curious and let the world of wonder and awe return to you. It will be worth it. Let curiosity be a part of your spiritual practice. Dare to ask questions and avoid anything that tells you not to do so. For your mind is part of creation. Every new understanding enriches you and enriches creation.