Why Curiosity is a Catalyst to Wellbeing

I’m convinced that the person who said curiosity killed the cat hated life. If want to become a less judgmental person, the best thing to do is be a bit more curious about the world around me. In this way, I’m not projecting my own biases to it. The easiest way of doing this is by asking questions. Asking questions like the curious toddler that we seem to suppress because we deem it annoying. “But, why?”

Curiosity and Our Relationships

Asking questions is how we converse with other people. Think about your favorite date or an interview you’ve had. It all contains questions to learn about the other person. When we genuinely care about each other, there comes a social curiosity that creates our relationships.

Asking questions is a great remedy for reducing bias, thus reducing conflicts with other people. Instead of arguing with a person, we can seek to understand them by asking questions. If both parties are seeking to understand each other, there’s no real need for conflict. There also isn’t a need for agreement, but at least you know where you stand on different subjects. We can enable the empathy we need to express our love with compassion.

It’s not just other’s ideas that we have conflict with, but we also may have limiting beliefs about ourselves. I enjoy answering questions and advice giving in Reddit forms. The biggest question I ask in return is, “Is what you’re thinking actually true?” In most cases, the stories we tell ourselves are not and it only takes a little contemplation and question-asking to bring us back to reality.

Going on an Adventure

The type of curiosity I want to dive into is what is called joyous exploration. I think it’s the reason why I’m spending so much of my money on new books. The bookstore walking distance from me probably loves me now. Joyous exploration is the desire to seek out new information. If you come to this blog through my book, you already know that most of what the world offers has no meaning until we give it meaning. So why not explore the world through a positive lens that gives us meaning?

Curiosity, in general, comes with befriending the unknown. When we resist the unknown, we resist wanting to ask questions. We essentially no longer want to understand. The unknown comes with a bit of anxiety, but staying curious allows us to accept the anxiety and overcome it the more we get our questions answered. We know this by also understanding that the answers aren’t the goal. Enjoying the adventure we put ourselves on due to wanting to learn is what matters.