Day 19 of journaling every day! I don’t know about you, but I often find myself not asking the questions I have. I think it is often an ego things. I feel like it would somehow make me look bad to admit that I don’t know absolutely everything about everything, which is of course nonsense. I think back to my school days and how relieved I was when someone asked the question I had been wanting to ask, but was too scared to because I thought I’d look foolish for asking something everyone else clearly understood. At some point, I was able to make the jump from recognizing that I was relieved when other people ask those questions, to guessing that others felt relieved when I asked the question. Curiosity is a habit. It feeds off of itself. Brené Brown writes in Dare to Lead, “We have to have some level of knowledge or awareness before we can get curious.” If we shut down our impulse to ask questions whenever it pops up because we are afraid of the vulnerability of admitting we don’t know something, we rob ourselves and our community not just of that particular answer, but of the habitual practice of curiosity. On January 3rd, when I asked about your guiding values, I shared a different quote by Brené Brown about curiosity, which I realized was one of my guiding values this year thru that journaling prompt: "Curiosity is unruly. It doesn’t like rules, or, at least, it assumes that all rules are provisional, subject to the laceration of a smart question nobody has yet thought to ask. It disdains the approved pathways, preferring diversions, unplanned excursions, impulsive left turns. In short, curiosity is deviant." According to an article for Psychology Today by Jennifer Gerlach, we need to feel safe in order to indulge in our curiosity. At the same time though, engaging in curiosity can help with anxiety and depression, making us feel safer. She gives these five suggestions for how to cultivate curiosity: 1. Revisit Childhood Joys 2. Do Something Unexpected 3. Pick Something Random and Learn About It 4. Ask Questions 5. Explore a New Place Take 5-15 minutes and write about Make a list of things you are curious about. For me curiosity and joy are deeply linked, so I hope they are for you as well. I’d love to hear what you are curious about! #timetosoar24 If you'd like to get these prompts directly to your email inbox, read my reflections, or for links to the articles I mention, you can find them at https://allthejoyfulthings.beehiiv.com/

Posted by laurawaltje at 2024-01-19 22:58:20 UTC