June 2014: Curiosity

Download the June 2014 Mandala of the Month

Curiosity may be deadly for cats but for us humans it’s a necessity…otherwise we remain stuck where we are.

On Merriam-Webster‘s site, they define curiosity as:

the desire to learn or know
more about something or someone

When we stop being curious, we stop growing. When we stop growing, we start dying. That seems a bit harsh and yet it is the truth.

One of the best ways to spark our curiosity is to begin asking ourselves “what if…..?” or “I wonder what would happen if……?”

I’m sure we’re all familiar with the negative perspective of “what if”.

• What if I fail?
• What if something bad happens?
• What if I make a mistake?
• What if everyone hates me?
• What if I make a fool of myself?

While we can certainly go that way…how is that any fun? It’s fear-based and counter-productive.

This month’s mandala, however, encourages us to look at the positive side of “what if”. What if I succeed? What if I win? What if I make it?

Here are some examples from my own personal experience:

• What if I try painting with acrylics on watercolor paper?
• What if I do mandala readings for people?
• What would happen if I added gel pens to my paintings?
• What if I made larger paintings?
• What if I entered a painting into a show?
• What if I try a new medium?
• What if I frame my paintings differently?
• What if I changed the style of my mandalas?

It’s when we become curious, when we decide to expand our current experience, that we learn and grow; we discover new things about ourselves and the world around us.

As we color this month’s mandala, let’s pay attention to how we go about our day. Then turn up our curiosity meter to see if we can come up with other ways to do what we do. When we start with our day to day lives, then our curiosity will then expand into ALL aspects of our lives.

What if we

• took a new route to get to work or any other place we regularly visit
• changed the order of our exercise routines
• changed our hair style
• altered a favorite recipe to include a new or unusual ingredient
• decided to smile at everyone we meet
• changed the way we introduce ourselves
• attended cultural events different from our own
• experienced different meditation techniques
• did something in the morning that we usually do at night or vice versa
• slept on the other side of the bed
• watched a movie or program that we normally would avoid
• took a class that we’ve been “curious” about taking but let fear or excuses get in our way until now

As we work through our list of “what ifs”, let’s pay attention to what we learn from each one…for better of for worse. What would we do differently next time…if at all? Was it worth it? Are we willing to try something else?

The more we play the positive “what if” game, the more we move forward, albeit sometimes cha cha cha style (2 steps forward, 1 step back). And the more we play, the more we notice how one thing leads to another. We also notice that without all the previous “what if” experiments we would be in a completely different place and more than likely still stuck where we were.

If we’ve lost our way with the idea of curiosity, watch small children as they go about their day. They demonstrate what it means to be curious in a big way. Sadly we loose a lot of that as we grow up mainly because people around us tend to discourage us or we let one bad experience hinder us from ever trying something new again.

It’s time to reconnect with our curiosity gene; to be alive and experience all we came here to experience; to live our lives to the fullest.

What makes you curious? Be brave. Now go for it.

Ponder this as we color the June 2014 Mandala of the Month.

Happy Coloring!

joyfully, Maureen,
The Mandala lady

http://www.facebook.com/TheMandalaLady

Be sure to download Section 6 of the 2014 Mandala of the Year.