8 | The Power of Curiosity – Your Gateway to Freedom

Show Notes

Learn how to use curiosity to take massive steps forward in your life despite your fears, nervousness or apprehensions! In this episode I break down what exactly curiosity is and how I’ve used it to consistently take steps forward in my life even when I’ve been afraid. I share examples from my own life, including my extreme fear when I did my first spiritual readings for other people. Curiosity has repeatedly carried me through big, scary transitions in my life and given me freedom from the pressure to get everything right. I encourage you to embrace curiosity as one of your greatest assets in creating your absolute best life.

Links

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Hey I’m Emilee, a total skeptic who experienced a very sudden and unexpected spiritual awakening in my early 30s. To say it rocked my world is an understatement. I went from not even believing in an afterlife to doing intuitive and psychic readings for others in less than 9 months! And things have just kept getting wilder ever since then. That crazy, magical experience led me here – talking to spiritually curious people about how leaning deeper into all of the soft, gushy stuff like love, soul desires and soul purpose will lead them to the most fulfilling life beyond even their wildest dreams. Seriously! It’s my hope that you’ll hear something in this podcast that activates your soul and reminds you of who you truly are.

Episode Transcript

Note: Episode transcripts are AI generated and may contain grammatical errors.

8 | The Power of Curiosity – Your Gateway to Freedom

[00:00:00] Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Suddenly Spiritual Podcast. This is Emilee, your host, your spiritual friend, your B F F on this journey of figuring out what the heck spirituality is and how it relates to your everyday life. I’m really excited to be here with you today. So, hello, welcome. If this is your first time listening, thank you so much for tuning in and I really hope that you get something out of this episode.

[00:00:33] If you’re a returning listener, wow. Thank you for coming back and listening to more. This is super cool, and I really hope that you get something out of this episode too. Today what we are talking about is curiosity and curiosity is a feeling that I try to live in. Curiosity is one of my core values. It is so important to my life and to how I move through the world.

[00:01:06] And I think that curiosity is a skill. It’s something that we practice. I don’t think that it is talked about enough. I think in today’s world we talk a lot about determination and hard work and focus and all of these things that, kind of push us to success. But I would argue that curiosity is just as important or even more important than those things when we talk about achieving our goals and moving forward in this life, because curiosity just opens us up to possibility and I really hope to impress that on you through this episode, how you can step into a life with more curiosity and why I think that it is so, so important and how impactful it has been on my life and my ability to move forward even when things seem super scary.

[00:02:06] So, That is what we’re talking about today. And that is really my intention for this episode. It’s my intention to introduce you to the power of curiosity in your everyday life. I want to show you how leaning into curiosity can help you let go of limiting beliefs, let go of perfectionism. It can help you let go of this control we often feel on the outcome of a situation. And it can help you move forward even when you’re feeling nervous.

[00:02:38] I’m also in this episode, going to teach you about a student mindset, and I’m going to encourage you how to adopt a student mindset so that you can begin to approach more areas of your life with curiosity and I’ll explain what everything means, what a student mindset is. I’m going to go in depth about what curiosity is in just a second. And then I’m also going to share with you some examples from my life to show you how curiosity has really, I mean, it’s really been the skill, the feeling that has propelled my life forward.

[00:03:15] And if you’re here listening, if you’re on a spiritual path, I know that you’re also on a personal development path because spirituality and personal development, personal growth, they’re kind of the same thing.

[00:03:28] Once you get into spirituality you learn that it’s really a healing journey. A spiritual journey is really a healing journey. It’s really a journey of getting to know yourself better and learning how to have a more enjoyable and I don’t know, successful, but maybe that’s not the right word, but how to have a more enjoyable existence in this lifetime. It’s about learning how to connect with your soul. It’s about learning how to live from that soul-centered place.

[00:04:01] And that is a journey. That is a lot of learning about what is holding you back and how to work with the feelings and the experiences that you are carrying forward that are not serving you. And, I mean, that is personal development. They’re the same. And so I wanted to talk about curiosity and this topic today because it has been really, really impactful in my journey of personal development. And I know it’ll be the same for you.

[00:04:34] So what do I mean when I say curiosity? Well, when I’m talking about curiosity, what I mean is curiosity is this openness and this willingness to see things from a fresh perspective. It’s admitting that we don’t know everything, and it’s a willingness to learn and to grow and to explore.

[00:05:02] Curiosity is, is like seeing something with fresh eyes. It’s seeing something and allowing yourself to wonder, allowing yourself to dream, allowing yourself to think and contemplate. It’s admitting that we don’t know everything. And it’s being open to new perspectives, being open to receiving new information.

[00:05:31] And it often, this skill of curiosity also often leads into some of my other favorite feelings, which are wonder and awe. Just that feeling of like, wow, what is possible? And that feeling of expansion where it’s like anything is possible. Curiosity leads to that.

[00:05:54] Curiosity is a, a willingness to receive. It’s an openness to receive. If you’re curious, your mind is open, your heart is open, you’re not closed off. If you’re closed off, then that means you’re not willing to receive new information. But curiosity is the opposite of that. It’s a, it’s an openness, just a real openness to receiving information from other people, from spirit, from what’s around you. It’s really taking things in and pondering and wondering and trying.

[00:06:31] Curiosity is, it’s just this really pure feeling in my mind. It’s nonjudgmental. Curiosity welcomes imperfection it. There’s no pressure. You don’t have to know everything or get everything right. When you’re living in curiosity, you’re living in wonder and there is this openness to just try and see what happens. You don’t have to be perfect. You don’t have to know exactly what you’re doing or exactly where you’re going or exactly how to get where it is your your next goal is.

[00:07:04] It is active. Curiosity is trying things and it can really fuel us toward discovering some incredible things about ourselves, discovering things about the world, about our connection to spirit, and discovering more about what we are actually capable of.

[00:07:23] Curiosity is so powerful. It is so powerful because it is something that allows us to move forward without the stress and fear of being wrong, without the pressure of perfectionism.

[00:07:42] It allows us to move forward in wonder and with a focus on learning and growing. So that’s pretty incredible, right? That’s pretty incredible. I think that that is so, so powerful and it’s something that we as a culture, society that we need to value more because curiosity is what leads people to new inventions, to creating like beautiful art.

[00:08:12] Curiosity is when I say in the title of this episode that it’s the gateway to freedom. What I mean is that it’s freedom from pressure and stress. It, it introduces an openness to try new things and to live with this open heart, which is just an incredible way to exist. It’s a free way to exist. You feel so free to just try when you live in curiosity.

[00:08:42] Related to curiosity is this concept of the student mindset. And I’m going to be honest, I don’t know where I learned this. I don’t know if student mindset is like a common term or not. I really have no idea. And so I don’t know where this concept came from. I don’t know if it came from my mind or if it was something I was taught or something I read. I have read, I can’t even count how many spiritual and personal development books and all of that information is just mishmashed in my head.

[00:09:13] So, I want to introduce you to the concept of the student mindset, because this is what really started to introduce me to the power of curiosity.

[00:09:24] So the student mindset is this mindset that we can take on where we view ourselves as a student. And if we are a student, a student of life, a student of relationships, a student of health, a student of whatever area your current goals are in, if we’re a student, that means we don’t have to know everything.

[00:09:48] That means we are learning. And if we’re learning, if we are the student that means we have the freedom to try things. That means that we, we don’t have to get everything right. We don’t have to know the end result. A student is someone who is curious. A student is someone who is researching, looking for answers, trying things out.

[00:10:13] There’s so much freedom in being a student and not forcing yourself to be an expert, not thinking that you already know everything. If we get into the trap of thinking that we already know everything about anything, about any topic. If we think we already know everything about being a parent, we think we already know everything about being a spouse, we already know everything about running a business or doing our job or getting healthy. If we think we already know everything, then we are closed off to new information. We’re not being the student. We can’t learn new things. We can’t grow. We become stagnant and stuck exactly where we are. But if we allow ourselves to be the student, if we admit that there’s always more to learn and we are willing to always learn more.

[00:11:10] If we become the student, then we can move forward. Students are always moving forward. They’re always learning and trying, and the beauty is that they can try without a fear of failure, without a fear of messing it up because they’re the, they’re the student. They’re learning. If you stick into that mode of I am learning, I am growing, then it is so much easier to take steps forward without the pressure of knowing everything and getting everything right.

[00:11:42] It’s a really incredible way to remind yourself that you are not at the end. I don’t think we’re ever at the end, the end of a path, the end of a journey, the end of just knowing everything about life, the end of like being spiritually enlightened or something like that. I don’t think there is an end. And the only way there’s an end is if we decide that we know everything and all that that does is block us off from more growth. It blocks us from moving forward and evolving and changing and developing and and continuing to grow into the person, the soul, the spirit, the the being that we are meant to be.

[00:12:29] And so this student mindset, adopting this student mindset can be really life changing because it opens up possibility. It opens up opportunity if we are closed, thinking that we already know everything. We’re not curious. Then we are not going to see opportunities that Spirit is bringing to us. We’re not going to see possibilities that spirit’s putting in our path. We’re not going to hear guidance. We’re not going to be able to access all of these things because we are stuck believing that we already know what’s right. And the reality is oftentimes, most of the time, There’s something even better waiting for us around the corner.

[00:13:12] There’s new information that we can take in. We are the student. There’s no way that us, the humans, can know everything. There’s just no way. The world is too big. The possibilities are too endless. And so sitting in this student mindset allows us to see these possibilities, to take in new information, to hear guidance. And continue constantly forward on this path.

[00:13:43] And as I’m saying this, I’m thinking a lot of you are probably already living in this mindset, at least right now in terms of spirituality. Because if you want to grow spiritually, personally, you have to accept that you’re a student. And you may be having this mindset already in this area of your life, and I really want to encourage you to think about other areas of your life where you may be a little stagnant, where you may have already decided that you know everything, where you may not be willing, consciously or subconsciously to take on new information because this student mindset, this way of living in curiosity, it can be applied to every aspect of your life. To every aspect of your life.

[00:14:35] And I want to also just say that one of the other beautiful things about living in curiosity is that it provides some separation between you and the thing that you’re working toward. And what I mean by that is that it, you know, it means you don’t have to be the expert. You don’t have to get everything right like we’ve been talking about. You don’t have to know everything. You can just be curious. You can just be learning, and it takes away the obligation that we often put on ourselves to do everything exactly right.

[00:15:09] With curiosity we just get to let go of the stress, let go of the pressure, and just try. We just get to experience things. Just be, and it is so, so freeing. With curiosity, we don’t have to know all the answers, and we don’t have to know exactly how to do something. We can just allow ourselves to learn as we go. Just step forward and see what happens.

[00:15:36] That’s one of my favorite things to think is, let’s see what happens. Let’s see what happens if I try this. And we can really view life or whatever goal we’re working toward as an experiment as, I’m just going to try this out. I just want to see what happens. I wonder if I can do this. And when that pressure is gone, moving forward becomes super fun.

[00:16:03] Isn’t it so fun to move forward in that energy of, I wonder what could happen. I wonder if I could do this.

[00:16:13] So I want to give you some examples of living in curiosity and of how curiosity can really be this antidote to fear and a gateway to freedom in your choices, freedom in your way of being, this freedom from fear and from perfectionism. And perfectionism is really just the fear of getting things wrong. How it can free you from that.

[00:16:39] So I want to give you an example from my own life of when I’ve really leaned deep into curiosity when I was feeling super afraid and super self-conscious. So I’ve, I’ve shared before in other episodes when I started my spiritual journey it was really an unexpected journey for me. And it really started with me meditating and journaling and just trying to figure out how to feel more happy and content in my current life. And as I began all of that began journaling, meditating, my meditations pretty quickly started turning into visions with me meeting spirit guides, being taken on these like beautiful journeys and spirit showing me all of these incredible things. The visions I was receiving were guidance for my life.

[00:17:41] I started channeling. My journaling I realized was not actually like my thoughts and voice, but it was me channeling these beautiful messages from Spirit, and it was this incredible feeling of guidance and support that I had never experienced before.

[00:17:58] And as this was happening, I started becoming so compelled to try to have these visions for other people. I really wanted to see if the visions that I was having for myself, if I could somehow connect to someone else and also have these visions for them and deliver information to them.

[00:18:27] At this point, I think I’d had one reading before, like one intuitive psychic reading, and so I didn’t really know anything. I didn’t know anything about how it was supposed to go. I didn’t know how to connect to someone else’s energy. I didn’t have any, any experience or any realm of understanding for how any of this worked, but I just felt this huge push to try.

[00:18:55] And the thing is, if you’ve ever done a reading for someone else before, it is the most vulnerable experience I’ve ever experienced. It is so scary to put yourself out there and , to have these visions and then say it to someone else and then describe someone else’s life to them. Someone that you don’t even know. Like, I’m saying all of these things, and I don’t know if they’re true or not, like me, Emilee, I don’t know. It’s just what Spirit has shown me and you, you have to trust so deeply in what you’re being shown, even though you don’t understand and it is so vulnerable.

[00:19:41] Imagine telling someone I see that, that you are moving soon, but I don’t know that, like Emilee doesn’t know that and it’s so vulnerable and they can just be like, no, you’re wrong.

[00:19:57] And so I felt really compelled to do these readings, but I was so nervous and so scared, and the only way I was able to step forward and do these very first readings was by focusing on my curiosity, by focusing on the fact that there was no way, literally no way that I could do enough research and do enough preparation to make sure that I did it perfectly. There’s literally no way. So what I had to do to push myself forward is to just think, I wonder what happens. I wonder if I could do this, and to really focus on it as a student, as this is a learning opportunity, as I’m just trying something out.

[00:20:50] Because when I put the pressure on myself, like I have to get this right, I have to give them the information that they want. I have to do a really good job. If I put that pressure on myself, I never ever would’ve taken that first step because it was so scary and it is so vulnerable.

[00:21:09] So instead, I scheduled my very first readings just as practice. And I, I just told myself, I just want to try. I just want to try. I’m just so curious. I want to see what happens. I want to see if I can do this. And if I had never taken that step forward with that curiosity, I would not be here right now talking to you.

[00:21:37] Those first readings were incredible. I learned so much, and I was absolutely shocked to learn that I really could receive information for other people. I really could deliver them messages that were so meaningful to them. I never would’ve discovered that if I hadn’t allowed myself to be curious.

[00:22:07] And I have to step deeply into curiosity every single time I do a reading, because it is that curiosity, that desire to learn, to be the student, to grow that really allows me to, to do this work. If I go in thinking I have to know everything and this has to be perfect, it is such a closed off, limited feeling.

[00:22:38] But if I go in open, I wonder what will happen. I wonder if I can help someone. I just wonder if I can help them. I just want to try. Oh man, that is so powerful. That is such a relief of the stress and the pressure and the, oh, that just closed off, tight, fearful energy that we often approach things in. If we instead lean into that curiosity, it opens us up to possibility. It opens us up to trying.

[00:23:16] And the thing is, if it doesn’t work, if the thing we’re we’re trying doesn’t work, if we don’t get the outcome we want, that’s okay. That is just information, that’s good information for us to have. That’s information that we can take in as a student and we can learn from.

[00:23:37] Because not every single practice reading that I did not, not all of it worked. I’d say they all worked, but not all of the information that came through was perfect. Like definitely not. I had to learn how to interpret the information that was coming into me and how to communicate it, and sometimes I misinterpreted what I was seeing and that was all opportunities for me to learn.

[00:24:08] If I had taken those experiences to mean , I don’t know how to do this, I can’t do this, I’m wrong, I’m never going to figure it out. If I had taken it to mean that that was the end I never would’ve progressed. And I wouldn’t still be progressing in my development of my intuitive and psychic skills and mediumship skills. I wouldn’t have that development or that inner development that it takes to continue to do things that are scary that you don’t know if you’re doing it right.

[00:24:41] But instead, because I was able to sit, in that student mindset, anchor into that student mindset, I was able to think, okay, thank you so much for providing me this feedback. Thank you so much for this information. I’m going to use this to learn and to grow and to, to take more steps forward to lean deeper into curiosity. It is so, so powerful.

[00:25:12] That example is just like the, the biggest example I can think of from my personal life about how curiosity has really pushed me forward and propelled me to do bigger and bigger things. But the reality is I use curiosity in every single day.

[00:25:29] Curiosity is really what has given me confidence. I can say for sure all of the big difficult things that I’ve done, I didn’t start them by being confident. How could I be confident? I didn’t know what I was doing. I started them by being curious and that curiosity, that student mindset over time has led to confidence.

[00:25:55] It has allowed me to get the experience to feel confident. But there’s no situation, no new thing you’re going to take on where you can start with the full confidence of knowing what you’re doing. Well, it doesn’t work that way. You have to do the thing before you feel confident about the thing and the way that you do the thing is through curiosity, through wonder, through allowing yourself to try with a detachment from being perfect. And curiosity is what allows you that detachment. Being a student is what allows you that detachment from having perfection all the time. And this is applicable to literally everything.

[00:26:38] Even I think about using curiosity in my parenting. I feel like I talk about parenting on every episode because it’s so hard for me that it always comes up. But if you are a parent, you know that there is endless parenting advice out there, endless. And for every piece of advice, there’s someone saying the exact opposite is what you should do.

[00:27:00] And it is so confusing and overwhelming if you are constantly looking for someone to tell you how to be a parent. We have to learn as we go as parents because our kids are always growing and changing. There’s always new stages, new levels. And then you add multiple kids, and now you have to learn how to manage multiple children. You have to learn as you go. And if we come into parenting thinking that we know everything and feeling super rigid, then I feel like that really limits our ability to be a good parent. We’re not able to flow and move because, as I am learning, different children need different things. Different kids have different personalities. Different kids respond differently to different parenting. And so I really have to approach my parenting with a student mindset, with the mindset that I am learning as I go and that’s okay.

[00:27:59] With the realization that not every choice I make as a parent is going to be the best choice. Not everything is going to work, but that’s okay. That doesn’t mean I’m a bad mom. That means I am learning. That means I am taking in more information and using it to continue forward in curiosity, as a student, as someone who is learning and developing and growing into the best version of a parent of a person that I can be.

[00:28:32] And I hope that really shows you how curiosity is applicable everywhere. The student mindset, it is important in every area of your life, in health and relationships, in your job, in just literally everything you do and any goals that you set and any new steps forward that you want to take toward something new you’re learning, to any big goal you’re setting, somewhere you want to go, the type of person that you want to be. It really requires curiosity.

[00:29:06] And I also want to tell you, it’s way more fun when you choose to be curious because you have the freedom to try things. So, Whatever you are working toward in your personal growth right now better relationships, improved health, more success in your job or in your business, I really invite you to try to adopt a student mindset.

[00:29:29] I invite you to look at whatever problem or goal that you’re facing with an open heart, with the humility to accept that you don’t know all the answers. And with an openness to receive guidance, an openness to see new ways of doing things, an openness to see the options you have available.

[00:29:53] And just know that if you are open, things and possibilities and options and opportunities that come to you are probably going to be completely outside of your knowledge right now. It’s going to be something brand new that you couldn’t even think of because you’re open enough to receive it. You’re open enough to see it.

[00:30:13] So I would just really encourage you, whatever you’re working towards, try and approach it as an experiment. Try to approach it as some of those thoughts I was telling you: “I just want to see if I can do it.” “I just want to see what will happen.” “I just want to see if I can help someone.” “I just want to try.”

[00:30:37] Try to approach it with that instead of, “I have to be perfect.” “I have to get this right.” “I can’t start until I know everything.” Don’t fall into that trap.

[00:30:48] Allow yourself to be curious. Allow your curiosity to lead you to confidence. Allow your curiosity to lead you to knowledge. You are not going to start anything as an expert.

[00:31:04] You have to fail. You have to fail sometimes. That is the path toward learning, toward becoming an expert. There is no avoiding it and the way to get through those moments when you fall is curiosity, is the student mindset, is the recognition that this whole life is one big learning journey that you are on.

[00:31:31] And if you can stay in that mindset you’re unstoppable. You’re seriously unstoppable. And these problems have so much less effect on you, on your feelings about yourself, if you are able to remember that this is just a learning journey. I am learning. I am moving forward. I am going to take this information in. Thank you for this experience.

[00:31:58] If you are able to think that way, those letdowns have so much less effect on you, so much less power over your emotions and over your opinions of yourself, over your self-esteem because you know that you are learning. You are growing and that you are going to continue moving forward.

[00:32:21] So as a recap, curiosity is an openness to learn, an openness to be guided. It is a willingness to be wrong and a release from perfection and expectation. And I really want you to experience the freedom of living in curiosity. I want you to experience the magic and freedom that happens when we choose to move forward in the name of growth and exploration, rather than letting fear and nervousness hold us back.

[00:32:57] Curiosity is a major part of how I’ve been able to consistently make major changes in my life and take steps forward, even when I have been unsure of the outcome, which is pretty much all the time. Even when I don’t know the exact steps to take curiosity is what has allowed me to move forward even when I’m afraid, I’m nervous.

[00:33:20] It’s curiosity. It’s curiosity that I am leaning deeply into. Standing in curiosity has moved my life forward without the heaviness and stress and worry of doing things perfectly. It’s been absolutely freeing and I want you to experience that same freedom.

[00:33:39] I hope through this episode that you have a better understanding of the incredible power of leaning into curiosity. I hope that you’ll take my advice and start bringing more curiosity into your everyday life and into your mindset.

[00:33:56] My friend, if today’s episode was helpful. Please leave a review for me on Apple Podcasts. It’s so quick and easy. I have a link in the show notes. And it’s incredibly helpful in expanding the reach of this podcast, especially since I’m here in the early stages.

[00:34:15] I want to thank you so much for tuning in and Gosh, I just really hope that this has been impactful for you. I can’t wait to chat with you again soon. I’ll be back next week. I am sending you so much love. I’m wishing you a day, a week full of wonderful, of curiosity, full of awe, and I will chat with you soon.

[00:34:39] Bye.