The Kindness of Curiosity

"Once we believe in ourselves, we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight, or any other experience that reveals the human spirit."
― e. e. cummings

I had an interesting experience in yoga class yesterday.  At the beginning of class, the instructor spoke about the concept of curiosity.  She asked us to try approaching challenging poses with curiosity, instead of internally groaning or assuming what we could or couldn't do.  She said that curiosity was about being kind to ourselves and not selling ourselves short.

For whatever reason -- it may have been the use of the word "kind," I decided to give it a try.  So whenever there was a place in a pose that I thought was beyond me, I would try to keep myself curious and explore where I could go with it.

At one point, we were doing back bends (full wheels) and the instructor helped the woman next to me.  Standing by the student's head, the instructor had her do the back bend, but instead of having the woman keep her hands by her shoulders on the floor, she was to grab the instructor's ankles and use them to raise herself up, first onto her head and then off the floor.  The woman really struggled and I -- and probably she -- could not imagine that she was going to be able to rise up.  But rise up, she did.  When the instructor came to where I was, I couldn't decide whether I was better off knowing what was coming or not.  But I willed myself to go into curiosity mode and I grabbed the instructor's ankles hard.  I don't remember much about what happened next, but I squeezed her ankles and then pushed up with all my might (and then some).  Through a fog of sorts, I found myself rising up.  The instructor said something like, "Look at you, Superwoman" and then I was down, and it was over.  I felt a tear running down one of my eyes and felt very emotional.  Yoga can be strange that way.

But what that funky back bend exercise brought strikingly home is that curiosity is a form of kindness -- to ourselves and to others.  It can take us beyond our limits and assumptions.  Think about employing curiosity in terms of dreams you have and what you might be able to accomplish.  Or in terms of facing challenging situations.  Or your assumptions about others.  How surprising (I won't say curious) that there is kindness to be found in curiosity.