Curiosity can make you smarter. How? It has been seen through scientific studies that curiosity can lead the brain to a state conducive to learn and retain any type of information.
In very general terms, curious people learn better. But the intelligence I'd like to focus on today is emotional intelligence.
Yeah. Being a curious person helps a lot to understand and accept emotions. When you feel stuck, try to observe what emotions you are experiencing. It is not the same as saying "I don't feel well" for example, look a little further and realize that This generic discomfort is perhaps anger, sadness, shame, or even simply tiredness.
Recognizing and naming our feelings is exercising our emotional intelligence.
Also, as simple as this may seem, Recognizing the nuances of what we feel and naming those distressing emotions gives us a way to validate our internal experience. And as the psychologist says Beth Kurland, also has the added benefit of reducing its intensity.
That is, what we feel is no longer a mysterious and indescribable threat. By exploring our sensations and perceptions, we can simply identify and record them within a temporal framework. Go from “I feel bad and I don’t know why” is far from “Right now I feel sad.” This second option is less disturbing… After all, we've all been sad before, and it wasn't the end of the world. The difference, often, lies in following our curiosity and not trying too hard to avoid feeling what we feel. As Kurland explains:
Being curious rather than fearing or rejecting (emotions) provides a better lens for understanding feelings.
Anxiety and apprehension make us stay still. With doubts but without asking. However, curiosity invites us to try, to participate. It doesn't have to be a great desire that moves us, nor do we have to have a very clear purpose, In order not to get too anxious, sometimes we just need to pay attention to our curiosity.
A while ago I wrote about how being curious can help us be more creative And it is precisely this curious attitude that can broaden our emotional understanding.
Since curiosity is about recognizing and exploring new experiences, beyond anticipating whether these experiences will be entirely pleasant or not, being curious about our own emotions is a good idea.
