Our brains are always trying to save us time by creating more habits and automatic responses.
And while that intention is wildly positive and mostly helpful, it can also get us into a bit o’ trouble since automatic thinking works by employing judgment and assumptions.
On the other hand, operating out of curiosity instead of judgment is like the Holy Grail of self growth and happiness.
Why?
When we’re curious, the whole world is new every day.
New opportunities and experiences arise.
Our genius emerges.
It sounds simple enough so far, right?
Curiosity good. Judgment bad.
But we all know it’s not quite that easy.
So, let’s take a peek into what we’re up against before we move on.
The truth about our thoughts
According to studies performed by the National Science Foundation, the average person has between 12,000 and 60,000 thoughts PER DAY.
WHAT?!?!
And not only is that number staggering by itself, but out of those thoughts, about 80% of them are negative and 95% of them are repetitive.
If only 5% of our thoughts are new each day, it’s no wonder we get stuck in our lives!!!
We have to be incredibly intentional when we want to change our circumstances and patterns.
So, if you’re sold on the concept of curiosity over judgment, here’s the fastest, easiest way I’ve found to accomplish it consistently:
Drop into your body
If the more primitive, survival mechanisms in our brains are quick to act out of judgment, then we can’t always trust our minds/thoughts when we’re seeking a new experience of life.
After all, we just found out we’re going to get the same answer 95% of the time when we ask our minds.
So, the key to tapping into curiosity and cultivating something new is to focus on what our bodies are telling us.
There is incredible wisdom in our bodies that often remains undiscovered even though it’s a far more reliable method to gain insight on what’s happening to us and what we need.
When we sit with the sensations in our bodies and just notice them, we are taking ourselves entirely out of judgment and immersing ourselves in curiosity.
It’s about feeling instead of thinking.
Every time I practice this with clients and in my own life, it cultivates fresh insights.
And there’s a reason this always works:
Since our brains can’t tell the difference between real or imagined stress, the sensations in our bodies mirror the activity in our minds.
Thus, negative thoughts produce a tense (or angry, or sad, or fearful) body.
By dropping into our bodies for a couple of minutes versus going to our minds for answers, we’re reversing this principle.
Instead of relying on repetitive, negative thoughts that will only lead us back to the beginning of our outdated cycles, we’re exploring what’s happening to us in real time which cultivates real change.
Here’s to new experiences fueled by curiosity!
