‘Curiosity is the engine of achievement’ Ken Robinson
With the start of a new year many of us reflect on the year that has past and look ahead to the year to come. We set new year resolutions that do not last and bring the hoped-for change. Often our established patterns of behaviour, thoughts, attitudes, and beliefs can trip us up as we try to make the change whilst navigating the challenges of life.
How often do you get stuck in a pattern of thinking the same thoughts or ruminating on the same old, unhelpful storylines? Do you become consumed by your cognitive biases and limiting belief systems that create a reality that traps you and limits your options for change. How can you break this pattern and open to a new reality? Deep and lasting change can only be made when you make changes within ourselves (Deep Change, Dr Robert E Quinn).
When we are young, we ask questions and have a naturally inquisitive mind, our minds are open and free from misconceptions or assumptions, to a world of possibilities. As we age, we assume answers and our default becomes ‘I know’ as we strive to be an expert and become uncomfortable admitting that we don’t know all the answers. Curiosity opens us up to the possibility of change and cultivating it, at all levels, helps individuals to adapt to uncertain conditions and external pressures. When our curiosity is triggered, we think more deeply and rationally about decisions and are more creative.
One way to cultivate curiosity is to adopt a Beginner’s Mind, a key foundation of mindfulness. Beginners mind is all about shedding expectations, biases, judgements, and preconceptions leaving the mind open to new experiences, possibilities and ways of thinking. Past experiences or concerns for the future are left behind so that reality can be experienced unencumbered.
With a beginners mind you can engage with something or someone as if for the very first time like a small child, full of curiosity, wonder and amazement. People who practice mindfulness bring this attitude to both their formal meditation practice and informally throughout the day. For example when you next take a shower or a bath, imagine it is the first time and feel the sensation of water on your skin, smell the soap, or watch the steam as it moves through the air before their eyes.
Our brains are built to be attracted to novelty – a novelty bias – which causes a number of brain systems to become activated including the dopamine system. Dopamine is the ‘give me more’ neurotransmitter which motivates and signals to the brain to start learning. Curiosity and adopting a beginners mind to trigger the novelty bias is an effective way to create new neural connections and thus support change.
Rachel Carson, the great naturalist, captured it beautifully when she said ‘A child’s world is fresh and new and beautiful, full of wonder and excitement. It is our misfortune that for most of us that clear-eyed vision, that true instinct for what is beautiful and awe-inspiring, is dimmed and even lost before we reach adulthood. If I had influence with the good fairy who is supposed to preside over all children, I should ask that her gift to each child in the world be a sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout life.’
May this new year bring the gift of childlike wonder and curiosity to deliver the new beginnings that you seek.
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