Curious and Creative

Category: Curiosity can deepen self-awareness

  • Curiosity Can Deepen Our Understanding of Ourselves

    February 13, 2025

    Did you know that curiosity helps us develop mind management skills that can lead to personal autonomy? The idea of becoming more autonomous is intriguing.

    Mind management skills include critical thinking, a questioning attitude, and ability to explore different perspectives. These skills will ultimately lead to better self-awareness.

    Blogger and Podcaster Avik Chakraborty shared that curiosity and non-judgment are essential elements of awareness. Curiosity is what drives you to learn and explore new things. Non-judgment is what allows you to accept yourself and others without criticism.

    How important is self-awareness? Writer Jonathan Park pointed out that “Without the self-awareness to accurately judge our knowledge and capabilities, we can overestimate our abilities, oversimplify the world we live in, and overlook the skills of others.”

    Park wrote that a lack of self-awareness can lead to overconfidence. When we are overconfident with our skills and fail to adopt curiosity and self-awareness with our learning, we only evaluate ourselves from our limited and highly subjective perspective.

    My research has revealed that curiosity is key in stimulating our learning. This includes learning about us. Curiosity also improves our self-awareness. Curiosity enhances critical thinking because it encourages us to question the status quo. It opens our minds so we can look at a situation from several angles. Curiosity promotes adaptability and flexibility.

    Neuroscientist Dr. Caroline Leaf stated that through asking yourself questions, you can gain a sense of your own abilities and learn how you can adapt and change to improve your life. She also noted that when we become more mindful of our own thoughts and emotions, we can become better at understanding our internal processes.

    Curiosity creates an energy and neurochemical flow through the brain that results in an increasingly malleable state in the relevant brain networks wrote Leaf. When in this malleable state, our brain allows you to reorganize, change and expand the memories housed within a thought structure.

    Chakraborty wrote that there are several ways that we increase our awareness: pay attention to our thoughts and feelings throughout our day, and journal about our experiences, thoughts and feelings. Meditate or practice mindfulness. Perhaps talk with a friend or therapist about your experiences.

    Resilience Coach Russell Harvey suggested- that curiosity increases positivity. Being more curious is intricately linked with greater life satisfaction and stronger overall mental wellbeing. Like Dr. Leaf, Harvey said that being curious about us is an effective way to increase our awareness because it encourages us to ask questions and reflect.

    Learn with curiosity, not our egos. If we learn something to become an expert, we can make false assumptions, and could make brash generalizations and misconceptions, wrote Park.

    Leaf wrote that using this method of asking ourselves questions is more effective in reconceptualizing our minds. Through this process, we can distance ourselves from what we are thinking about.

    I invite you to move to a quiet area and take a few moments to ask yourself the following: What thoughts weigh you down? What are your thoughts trying to tell you? Articulate what your thoughts are now. You can write down your answers in a journal or notebook. Become curious about the answers that you give. Reflect on how you answer the questions. Learn a little more about yourself.

    Park also suggested checking your assumptions. Assumptions may be misleading, incomplete or inaccurate.

    I think this is good advice. You may even have assumptions about yourself. I know I have had made assumptions about myself. These were less than helpful. This where asking self-reflective questions can be key.

    Challenge your beliefs and expectations to minimize making assumptions. Take the time to validate your resources. This is where curiosity comes in handy. It helps you find credible and diverse sources of information when learning about a new subject.

    Curiosity can give us a deeper and richer life as we begin to have a better understanding of who we are, our thoughts, and our mental and emotional well-being stated Leaf.

    Lead with curiosity.

    Resources:

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