#352 – How will curiosity set you free from Ego-based anxiety?

Your Ego demands answers. And when it can't get them––which is practically always––it spirals into fear, obsession, anxiety, dragging you down with it.

That's what I was feeling last night, when trying to fall asleep with new downstairs neighbors. Would they be noisy? Would they wake me up in the middle of the night?

I sensed my Ego pacing up and down my mind, rubbing its worried hands. And if they're noisy...? And if I can't sleep...? And will I be too tired tomorrow for my focus-intensive job...?

Then, I thought of the neighbors on the other side of the building. "Hm!," I wondered, "they've been living one upstairs and one downstairs for years. I wonder how they sleep, how they stand each other's noises."

This stopped my Ego in its tracks, its head tilted to the side, and that's the last thing I remember.

It worked! Instead of scrambling to give my Ego answers I didn't have, or letting it invent potential ruinous scenarios, the mere "Hm!" attitude had rendered its anxiety pointless. And just like that, it dropped it and disappeared.

Curiosity, I hope, won't kill your cat, but your Ego won't be able to stand to it.

Where in your life will curiosity free you up from anxiety?

Love,

Carolina