Unleash Your Curiosity and Creativity
Ever wonder where inspiration and innovation come from? How does one expand their awareness and stretch their imagination to new heights? What happens when curiosity is unleashed? What if no barriers existed – financial, temporal, spiritual? What if your inner critic was quieted?
Neuroscientists have demonstrated that indulging your curiosities through all five senses can strengthen the positive neural pathways responsible for greater awareness, improved mood, and a natural predisposition to experiencing positivity more easily and more often. Use your gifts of taste, touch, sight, smell, and hearing to fully experience your surroundings and engage your imagination. This is where genius is born. This is where freedom exists. “The five senses are the ministers of the soul.” – Leonardo da Vinci.
Indulge your curiosity. Strengthen your creative mind and stretch outside of your typical mental space. Our brains have a natural negative bias which challenges us to be positive. It’s survival based, dating back to early man. Clearly, we don’t need to worry about being chased by a rhinoceros through the wilderness today. Yet, our brains naturally continue to notice threats and negativity in our environment to keep us safe. What that means for us is that we need to work a little bit harder to notice the good, to soak up the good, and hold onto it longer.
Take five minutes a day. Pause. Breathe. Choose one thing in your environment that inspires peace, happiness, and excitement. Notice it. Fully. Go ahead. Look around. What speaks to you? What are the details of that object? What are the colors, lines, and shapes that together make its form? Does it have a scent? Our sense of smell is the most acute of all senses associated with memory. Does it remind you of an earlier experience or feeling? Does it have a sound, flavor, texture? What makes it so intriguing? Why does it exist this way? Follow those questions that lead you to a whole new world of possibilities. Focus on the possibilities, not the pitfalls. Quiet your inner critic. Push it away. It’s not welcome here.
Why is the sky blue? Leonardo da Vinci’s answer is, “I say that the azure that the air makes us see is not its proper color but this color comes from warm damp air evaporated into miniscule and imperceptible particles which being struck by the light of the sun become luminous below the obscurity of the mighty darkness which covers them like a lid.” What is your answer? Consider the intricacies of your surroundings. Where does that lead you?
Ask yourself open ended questions like, “Wouldn’t it be great if…?”, or “I wonder what happens when…”. The mind has a very difficult time not answering questions. It’s naturally forced to consider the options. Ask those that lead to greater awareness and involvement with your present world. Appreciate all things inspiring around you. Take a moment to noticed them – whether it’s your child’s face, a beautiful flower, or the sunshine today.
You have the power to choose where you focus your attention and energy. Choose the positive. Choose curiosity. Choose expanding your awareness. Choose opening yourself to love and possibilities. It’s the first step toward genius, inspiration, engagement, and gratitude.
First photo courtesy of Anusorn P nachol freedigitalphotos.net
Second photo courtesy of nattavut freedigitalphotos.net
