By Shawn McAndrew
Without curiosity, growth is not easy. When we ask questions, we can begin to understand why or how something is the way it is. Why? What? Who?
Before we even step foot into the Process, we are asking tons of questions (pre-Process work, anyone?). We explore our childhood, probing into how the adults who raised us acted or reacted. We ask ourselves how we’re acting out now what those adults modeled then, or how we are rebelling against their ways of being.
Curiosity Is Good
Why did my parents do what they did? Or not do what they should have? Why do I react to certain things? How can I become a better human being? How can I have more joy, love, and peace in my life? So many questions!
As a child, I was very curious. I wanted to know how things worked, why people acted the way they did. I pondered and wondered, and if my questions weren’t answered, I came to my own conclusions.
My grandmother had no patience with my curiosity. “Curiosity killed the cat,” she told me once. That was hurtful and helped erode my drive to find out why.
Figure It Out
Over the years, people’s impatience with my questions whittled away my curious nature. I stopped asking because I was rebuffed and rebuked too many times. Even though my quest for answers was enlivening to me, it was too painful to hear the constant push back of, “I don’t know! Figure it out for yourself.”
During the Process, I was able to reconnect to this wonderful part of me, a part that lay buried under other people’s fears, judgments, and narrow views. I cannot let myself stay small and uninterested. I have to know what makes things and people tick. Yes, I was that child who took apart a clock once. I couldn’t put it back together properly, but that wasn’t the point. I saw the insides, the mechanism. It helped me understand what made the hands go around every second, minute, and hour.
Explore and Discover
I am happy to be a curious person. I’ve learned to appreciate and love that aspect of myself. Curiosity allows me to grow and stretch; explore boundaries and widen my horizons. It gives me the opportunity to discover, uncover, reconnect to who I am, who others are, and why things work or don’t work.
The Process is about rediscovering and reconnecting to our true selves – our spirit. If I go into the day being curious, I learn new things, or remember things I once knew. Who will I meet in my journey today, and how will they inspire and open me to new ideas? What beautiful aspect of me will I remember? Curiosity enlivens, inspires, and awakens. Let’s go and make some discoveries today!
Gary Shunk
04/22/21 at 10:59 AM
Hi Shawn,
Thank you! Growing up as a wild child, I would often get into trouble and then get grilled by my mother. I learned to not like questions. This dislike of questions has not served me at all and has affected my curiosity. But lately I’ve committed to asking more questions. It’s primer pump for curiosity! Yay! Gary
Shawn
04/22/21 at 11:46 AM
You’re welcome, Gary. It’s interesting to discover what blocks our paths. Yay, indeed!
Brenda
04/19/21 at 8:03 PM
Hi Shawn!
Loved your curiosity blog. We are Kindred Souls. I always want to know why something works or doesn’t. If it doesn’t work is there a way to correct that. I am an old graduate, having taken the course in the early 90s. I love staying in touch and hearing how the process continues to touch people’s lives. It certainly did mine!💜🌺💚
Shawn
04/20/21 at 9:05 AM
Thanks, Brenda. It’s good to know that “old” graduates stay in touch with the Process and continue to reap the benefits from it. I certainly do (I graduated in ’97). Let’s keep asking why! 💖
Nancy
04/19/21 at 9:52 AM
Dear Shawn,
Every time I read one of your blogs, I make a powerful discovery about myself. Thank you for putting it out there.
You are such an example for me. I love and appreciate you so much.
Nancy
Shawn
04/19/21 at 10:06 AM
Thank you, Nancy! I appreciate your reflection on this. What we do is so inspiring. Much love and appreciation for you, too.