The art of being curious?

As you would have read in the last blog, unhelpful beliefs can be a a stumbling block in our healing journey. You can also add to the mix, thoughts, feelings and behaviours too, which can often be generated by our beliefs.

My training as a therapist focused on what was wrong with people. We were taught to look for dysfunction of this or that, what doesn't move well, what is stuck, etc etc etc.

What we were not taught, is what is right with people. What is it, that makes that person tick , what strengths can they draw on to overcome adversity?!

Over the years, I have fine tuned my skills in being able to identify in individual's areas of tension, dysfunction etc etc, at the cost of neglecting what so often is the key to getting those people back on track, is to reconnect them with their strengths.

So what are your strengths..... curiosity?

If I were to ask you what your strengths and weaknesses were, under which heading would be the greatest list?

For the pupose of this blog I want to focus on one particular strength we are all born with, Curiosity! However, I sense that by the time we reach adulthood, our sense of curiosity, of awe and wonder has had the shine taken off of it. Our opportunity for learning is largely dependent on our curiosity.

You can’t just give someone a creativity injection. You have to create an environment for curiosity to thrive and a way to encourage people to get the best out of themselves. Take the example of your children learning to walk. You did not stand beside them with a text book telling them or showing them how to do it. You created a supportive environment, that enabled them to explore, fail, try again and suceed and find out for themselves. There was ,and is, no right or wrong way of doing it. That joy and elation with their first steps... unforgettable. This is a massive strength, that so often gets overlooked.

What gets in the way of curiosity?

When I started my physio training, you were shown x technique that would resolve x problem. It turned out that x technique worked for 30 percent of the people ( if you were lucky!) but not the other 70 percent. Curiosity drove my thirst for a better understanding of why. Here I am thirty plus years later still curious. The more I know the more I know I don't know! But I have the percentages working in my favour now!

Again narrowing the focus down, to what gets in the way of us being curious about our movement? As a child you will have displayed immense courage and determination to master the ability to walk. As an adult, when we lose the ability to move as we would like, it is usually as a consequence of pain. At some point we then hand over our body to a therapist, to tell us what the problem is, and/or tell us how to move in order to get rid of the pain, so we can get back to moving how we would like.

''Curiosity seldom survives childhood. Adult creativity is still powerful, but there is just not enough of it. It can be said that the creative adult is the curious child who survived. '' ( Future learn - click here to read article)

'Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.' Robert Frost.

So I am encouraging you to be curious, notice and observe. The classes I teach and my 1-2-1 therapy sessions are based largely around this concept.

As mentioned in previous posts we are creatures of habit and our movements are, by and large on autopilot. Some of our movement habits serve us well others less so. When teaching a class I may give the instruction during a movement to pay attention to a hip or part of the ribs etc., for some people this will be a movement of ease , yet for others they may feel stuck, a sense of resistance. They maybe need to pause and explore. Each movement we do in the classes or workshops will provoke a different experience in each individual.

If I correct your movement pattern you will need to see me the next time things go wrong, if you correct your movement pattern, then you will have the tools, the experience, confidence and motivation to sort yourself out. I ultimately want to become redundant, which is not a great business model I have to admit. But my caveat would be that you check your car in to have a service and MOT every year, so why not your mind and body!

This term we have been working with the Lung and Large intestine meridians. The Metal Element. That sense of letting go. We have been using colour energy to encourage and nurture our strengths.

But in the next two sessions we will be going back to basics and noticing how we move. I have recorded three classes this term. The final two videos will be tuning you into what signposts to lookout for when you are moving. The videos can be used more as a road map as to how to get the most out of the recorded classes , and ideas for integrating into daily life.

Youtube Tutorial Week Four

Sending love and a colour energy that will ignite your strengths of curiosity!

Stuart x