Curioser and Curioser

Forgive yourself for not knowing what you didn’t know before you learned it. Zig Ziglar.

This must be one of my favourite quotes for when I realised what it meant, I felt incredibly free.

You see I had tried very hard to be the authority within the career I had chosen, but of course, the world of medicine is vast. I was afraid of being caught out not knowing something – you know – that imposter thing that a lot of people talk about. So I settled for simply knowing where to look!

Then, due to a series of minor(ish) health issues I began to see other ways of healing that worked really well as well. I felt a bit stupid not knowing about these. Surely I was on the right path, yet suddenly there was a fork in the path! However it wasn’t until these other health options had come across my path, that I even knew they were out there. How could I have known? 

Cognitively, I struggled a bit – there was no real match up or crossover with what I had learned with my previous years of study which was ongoing. What I had learned with years of effort, lost weekends, emotionally and physically distanced from my boyfriend, and a lot of money to do the study and the ‘hardships’ of being a student. I was also buffered within a in a community of thousands that supported what I was learning, unquestioning of the learnings. It therefore felt uncomfortable questioning what I had put my heart and soul into.  What I had once wholly and solely believed in.

We have all come across those who dismiss in a heartbeat the studies, beliefs, values and success of others. From religion to science. From parenting to government. This can be called cognitive dissonance, closed mindedness and sometimes it can be disguised as ignorance. And look how damaging it can be when a group or an individual somebody closes their mind to others.

So what is the antidote to dissonance and closed mindedness?

What I would love to see for the world is ....... curiosity.

Curiosity to see what else there is out there? How it could be applied to what the individual knows already. How it could be applied to self and others. Whether it applies or not? Curiosity is a quality related to inquisitive thinking such as exploration, investigation, and learning, evident by observation in humans and other animals. It is the desire to know more.

Curiosity makes you smarter

Curiosity is key to an open mind. A closed mind will only see what it wants to see. Like looking for the only cloud in the blue sky, because you have been told it is likely to rain. Like looking for the fatalistic outcome and going ‘I told you so!’ (with much glee) when a version of that happens. Trying to twist anything to fitting the map of what they believe. 

A curious mind is open to opportunity and fun. Like my experience it can be uncomfortable as you have to alter something at a deep value or belief level, maybe even an identity level. And sometimes you can have a bloody good laugh as you learn something new or gain a new perspective, as your world opens further. 

A curious mind understands that it doesn’t know everything and still won’t ever but can’t wait to find out something new. Life is way more interesting, brighter and fun.

We somehow forget to feed our curiosity, yet expect children to have it and learn. So at what stage do we lose that child like mind? And like a child's mind, curiosity makes your mind active instead of passive. Curious people always ask questions and search for answers. Their minds are always active. Since the mind is like a muscle which becomes stronger through continual exercise, the mental exercise caused by curiosity makes your mind stronger and stronger. Which therefore indicates that a closed mind could get weaker and weaker.

One thing I am somewhat 'closed minded' about is travel - how invaluable it is to open the mind to how the world works, how differently it could work and how you could fit into it in a different way to what you thought you could.

Of course, there is a bliss point to exercising curiosity and looking for information. It can turn into prying, nosiness, and maybe an inquisition! It is up to you to notice that, if you are simply curious, how do others take that? Is your thirst for knowledge and opening of the mind a bit over the top? Could you be a little more gentle in your search?

Forgive yourself for not knowing it all. Take that pressure off your shoulders. Relieve your head from having to know it all. Relax into that.

So I can’t wait to see what I may learn today. Who I may meet. What I may read. What I might find out that gets to make me laugh with realisation, blow my mind or simply let me nod with a ‘that’s interesting'.