Children always ask big questions, adults only small ones.
I've got 2 daughters, now 10 and 15. When they were little, they always asked profound questions like: "Where do we come from? What are stars made of? How do we think?"
The questions became smaller as they grew older. As adults, we tend to ask only small questions: "What's for dinner? Did I pay the electricity bill?"
But where did we take the wrong turn?
Sure, paying bills is necessary, and I love a great dinner, but what happened to our natural curiosity? To our hunger to understand life? The fact is, we are constantly bombarded with various external stimuli that demand our attention, such as the overwhelming amount of information we are expected to absorb in school. As time goes by, this conditioning becomes so ingrained that we no longer have the time, brain capacity, and eventually interest to ponder on the big things. We've been so programmed with external facts and stimuli that we completely forgot what really interests us. We are taught to acquire knowledge from external sources, to work hard, and to excel in a rigid system, rather than to listen within and embrace our innate curiosity. I'd say it is time to un-learn this pattern, this filter of reality we've adapted.
Let me show you 3 great ways how to get started:
1. Sit under the night sky and be in complete awe of the universe.
Start to wonder about how many stars there are. Is the universe really endless, and what does that mean? Look at the moon and really take it in. Isn't it marvelous how it changes daily?
2. Sit in silence and listen to your thoughts.
Get detached and just watch your thoughts. What does it mean to have a thought? Why can't I just turn my thoughts off? Where do they come from? Just relax and get aware what goes on in your mind.
3. Think about what it means to be you.
Look at your body, your hands, your legs. Really see your body, that we always take for granted. How many actions are in the body that you don't realize but are necessary to live? How your heart beats without you doing anything, how you are literally breathed. What makes you, you? Who are you really?
With tiny, little steps, we can de-program our minds from small thinking to curiosity again.