Curiosity killed the cat.
How many times have you heard that expression? It was something I’d be told sometimes when I was a child, by an adult who didn’t have the time or patience to answer my questions. But my goodness, what a disastrous message to give a child!
For it turns out that curiosity is one of the most basic ingredients of growth. Curiosity allows us to approach the world with an open mind, to want to learn about it, to receive life’s lessons with acceptance and equanimity, free of defensiveness and fear, to change our opinion when the evidence in front of us supports a different point of view, to have an enquiring mind and a scientific outlook.
I watched a TED talk recently in which Julia Galef explains the difference between a soldier and a scout mindset. How do people cut through their biases, prejudices, and motivations to see the facts and evidence objectively?
The answer is by being curious, open and grounded. Far from killing the cat, curiosity actually helps it survive and thrive.
So I invite you to be curious about something today. Maybe you hear an opinion expressed that you’d normally dismiss out of hand, or you walk past someone you see everyday but have never stopped to talk to. Be curious! Find out more. Learn something new. Make a connection. Practice being in a scout mindset and enrich your own life and that of others.
With love and gratitude,
Sophia
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