Curiosity is like a muscle

[Eric Tarpall]

I used to think of curiosity as something that some people have and some people don't. But now I think of it more like a muscle. When your curiosity muscle is weak you will do the same shit every day and you'll be happy doing that. For a while. But eventually you want more. But despite wanting more you won't be curious about trying new things because your curiosity muscle is weak. That's a funny situation to be in. That's the situation I'm currently in. I think a good way to strengthen your curiosity muscle is by asking questions such as ''What am I curious about?'' And you'll get some vague ideas if you keep asking this question. And maybe some solid ideas after a while. 

[Ethan_05]

Definitely, curiosity isn't innate. One idea that I have that is being studied and written about by people like Steven Kotler and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi is that maybe you can grow your curiosity muscle by getting into a "flow state" more often and removing distractions so that you can focus on a very deep level.

[Gabriel Antonio]

6 hours ago, Ethan_05 said:

Definitely, curiosity isn't innate.

Aren’t babies curious?

 

8 hours ago, Eric Tarpall said:

'What am I curious about?'

That’s a good question to ask yourself. It’s always good to get a little bit out of your comfort and experiment new things.

It’s important not to force youself too much though...

[DrewNows]

@Eric TarpallHmm "curiosity muscle", interesting. Not a bad question to ask oneself. Also maybe observe what sort of mindset you keep throughout the day. Sometimes when if im opportunistic, curiosity tends to be right around the corner. Another big one is appreciation, cuz it's easy to become curious about the things we appreciate 

[Ethan_05]

@Gabriel Antonio Good point, didn't really think that through. I think it would be more truthful to state that we all have creativity but that creativity is suppressed as we grow older and the curiosity muscle is just gaining our innate curiosity back.

Thoughts?

[Zigzag Idiot]

Valuing Truth or pondering the value of Truth seems to strengthen curiosity.

I thought these two Almaas quotes applied:

 

Living Reality Loving Its Own Truth

So recognizing and appreciating the fact that motivation is our own personal interpretation of something much more profound, something much more natural, liberates the enlightenment drive to function innocently and purely, without being clothed in the qualities of compassion, love, and service. The enlightenment drive is liberated when we understand how we appropriate its dynamism as our own motivation. The enlightenment drive is the drive of enlightened awareness to become conscious of itself, to manifest and realize itself. In other words, the enlightenment drive is not that we, as individual selves, selflessly love the truth. It is living reality loving its own truth and loving to reveal it.

Runaway Realization, pg. 41 

Living the Life of Truth

To live the life of truth means first to value the truth, and to value knowing the truth. It also means to value the truth such that you make it the center of your life, which means learning to be genuine, authentic, and sincere. At its heart, living the truth is a matter of integrity and respect—for oneself, for others, and for truth itself. The more our life respects and reflects the truth that we know, the more it will take us to ever deeper dimensions of truth, of true nature. There is an interaction, an interrelationship, and an inseparability between understanding the truth and living life. We cannot separate the two. We cannot be ivory tower philosophers and expect to discover truth. It doesn’t work that way, because inquiry is a journey of truth finding that constantly reveals the oneness of Being and life. Our spiritual philosophy must become an action philosophy. We have to let our souls become a manifestation of each truth we discover.

Spacecruiser Inquiry, pg. 353