Curiosity without an audience

We've become very interested in ourselves. Our growth. Our healing. Our relationships. Our attachment style. Our identities. Our goals. Our happiness. Our purpose. The lives we're trying to create. The generational wounds we're trying not to pass down to the next generation.

This is great in many ways. But also, it's a little exhausting.

As a therapist, I obviously think there is value in understanding ourselves. But sometimes I wonder when we decided the self needed this much work. Are we still interested in things? I mean genuinely interested. Interested in something because you want to understand it. Because you can't stop reading about it. Because for whatever reason it has your attention. Not because it will improve you. Not because it makes you interesting. Not because anyone else even knows about it. Just because you're curious. I think we need more curiosity without an audience and without some end goal.

There is so much attention on how we're doing, who we're becoming and what we're working through. And even a lot of what we call looking beyond ourselves often still circles back to us. Our families, children, legacy, what we're passing down, how we are viewed by other people.

What about just being interested in the world? You can decide to be interested in mushrooms. Or a specific period in history. Or learning an instrument. Or how cities are designed. Or puppetry. It doesn't have to mean anything about you. You are just curious and want to know more.

I think we all might benefit it we became less concerned with positioning ourselves in relation to others, something exacerbated by social media. And instead we spent more time looking around and thinking: Wow. There are so many weird, wonderful, and beautiful things in this world that are actually fascinating to experience and learn about.