Be Curious: Why You Should Be Interested In Self-Discovery and Self-Exploration

We are bombarded with so many stories of other people throughout the day. The thought about being someone else or living someone else’s life definitely crosses our mind from time to time. How could it not when we see all the perfection that is portrayed on Instagram and Facebook? You know, those filtered pictures of beautiful people traveling the world and sipping classy adult beverages on a tropic island while basking in the glorious sunlight. Or the person on Facebook who is trying to convince you that they made six figures by doing consulting or creating a business where they can work from home or anywhere in the world. It is nice. I think about what it would be like to live a life like that. Unfortunately, this mentality only holds you back and makes you feel stuck in life.

Everyone else’s life is interesting, but YOU have the most interesting life there is. Maybe you do not think so, but I am sure if you were to dig deep down inside, you will find something intriguing to share with the world. After all, your experience of being alive makes you who you are, and what is more interesting than that? You are at the center of the universe. In some sense, you are the universe! This is not to be a narcissistic comment and hint towards the idea that you are the only person that matters and that you are special, but rather to just spark a sense of curiosity about who you are.

A friend of mine and I asked our teacher why self-discovery is important and how would they try to convince a person to participate in a workshop in self-discovery, such as Holotropic Breathwork. His comment was both enlightening and comical:

“Are you curious? If you aren’t curious, then forget it. If you think you know everything you need to know, then this is not worth your while. But if you wonder about the nature of things and who you are, you might find this interesting. If not, go watch TV or something. Go watch a movie. I mean why go to the movies? It is someone else’s story. The secrets of the universe are right before you, but people tend to overlook them. Why save for retirement just so you can play golf? Why wait till retirement to discover your creative possibilities? Why not start now?”

I find it interesting when I talk about techniques of self-discovery, I get the response, “Why would anyone do that?” Well, why not? I feel like we live in a culture that lacks the passion to explore the inner realms of our authentic being. To explore the depths of our humanness to better understand who we really are and our place here in the cosmos. To me, that is the most interesting part about being alive — discovering who you are and why you are here!

Once you begin to explore who you are and begin to discovery different parts of yourself, the world begins to open up in new and unimaginable ways. Sometimes it feels like things begin clicking and everything starts making sense. Your life begins to flow in a mysterious way that only makes you that more curious about how it all works. If you really want to understand what I am talking about, I encourage you to take the step today and leap into the unknown by finding a self-discovery technique that speaks to you. It could be through yoga, ecstatic dance, Holotropic Breathwork and other forms of breathwork, shamanistic healing or shamanic journeying, meditation, martial arts, plant medicines, expressive art, and the list goes on.

Go out and be curious today. Go out and create your own story for the world to feed off of and to appreciate. As Terence Mckenna once said:

We have to stop CONSUMING our culture. We have to CREATE culture. DON’T watch TV, DON’T read magazines, don’t even listen to NPR. Create your OWN roadshow. The nexus of space and time where you are — NOW — is the most immediate sector of your universe. And if you’re worrying about Michael Jackson or Bill Clinton or somebody else, then you are disempowered. You’re giving it all away to ICONS. Icons which are maintained by an electronic media so that, you want to dress like X or have lips like Y… This is shit-brained, this kind of thinking. That is all cultural diversion. What is real is you, and your friends, your associations, your highs, your orgasms, your hopes, your plans, your fears. And, we are told No, you’re unimportant, you’re peripheral — get a degree, get a job, get a this, get that, and then you’re a player. You don’t even want to play that game. You want to reclaim your mind and get it out of the hands of the cultural engineers who want to turn you into a half-baked moron consuming all this trash that’s being manufactured out of the bones of a dying world.”