Hi, welcome back to

your Daily Mindfulness.

In today's session, we're going to talk

about the healing power of curiosity.

Now you've probably heard me talk about my

affection for the mind state of curiosity.

I consider it to be powerful

because it's the, well, what I

consider to be the opposite of fear.

If fear causes us to turn away,

curiosity causes us to turn toward.

If fear presupposes that

something is unsafe, curiosity

presupposes that something is safe.

And as a mind state that we can

bring into our meditation practice,

it has a lot of implications for

our healing, growth and integration.

Because when you think of all the ways

that we get dis-integrated, that we

further fracture the various parts within

us, the parts that we think shouldn't be

expressed, that feel difficult emotions

that we don't like, all of that can lead

to a glorified compartmentalization of who

we are, where we're only showing up as a

partial version of ourselves in the world.

And the big work of any sort of healing

and growth into the full expression of our

humaness is to create an internal space

where these different parts of us, at the

very least, are given the permission to be

seen and normalized rather than just cast

it out into the shadows of our awareness.

And this is where curiosity can be

quite powerful because as you're

going through your meditation

practice, you'll inevitably come

across things that are uncomfortable.

It's just the nature of engaging in

a practice that is turning inward.

You might have periods that are

really peaceful, joyful, and loving.

And then other periods of your

practice, where it's like,

Whoa, I'm navigating a lot.

In those moments, the tendency can be

to get, to further reinforce internal

resistance, where we start pushing

against these experiences and we

want to kind of push them back into

the shadows where they're not seen.

But they still continue

to create issues for us.

So curiosity is just this gentle

mind state that allows us to

meet what is here with interest,

with care, with non-judgment.

It just seeks to understand

what is this experience like.

It's not trying to fix it, make

it better, make it different.

And that's where the healing capacity is.

If you think of one of the things a good

therapist does, they create an environment

for, for another person to, to express

themselves fully, to feel safe, to be

seen, for all the different aspects of

them, to be able to come to the surface

and held in a compassionate environment.

Well, you can do that internally.

And curiosity is the mind state that,

that communicates that to these parts of

us that are so used to being pushed away.

So when you notice these experiences

arise in your practice, and in your day

to day life, you can just ask yourself.

What is it like to feel this?

What is this experience like?

What am I noticing?

And do you hear the difference in

that versus something like, why is

this here or this shouldn't be here.

What's wrong with me for feeling that?

All of that further disintegrates us.

And what we're interested in is

more wholeness, more integration,

more full embodiment of all the

different aspects of ourselves.

That is how we grow into full,

embodied, expressed human beings.

So thank you for your practice.

Let's settle in for today's meditation.

And see if you could bring a little

bit more curiosity to your practice.

Talk to you soon.