Develop a vibrant curiosity

The time has come,’ the Walrus said,

      To talk of many things:

Of shoes — and ships — and sealing-wax —

      Of cabbages — and kings —

And why the sea is boiling hot —

      And whether pigs have wings.’

Lewis Carroll

As I get older, rather than reaching that place of complete knowledge and understanding, I have more questions than answers. I become increasingly more curious. Perhaps this is what keeps me alive and vibrant. Or as Carroll says in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland: “Curiouser and curiouser.” My yoga teacher extolls the value about adopting a spirit of curiosity about what is happening in ones body - learning to appreciate the subtleties of change.

Sometimes we lose track of what we are feeling because we are just too busy coping with the the day-to-day chores of life. There are too many “deadlines” That’s rather an ominous word, isn’t it? We just can’t allow ourselves the luxury of feeling. 

Many years ago, It seems like a lifetime away, a very wise friend of mine asked me what I was feeling. I replied, “I think that…….” No,” she asked, “what are you feeling?” At that time I was under the misapprehension that thinking and feeling were the same thing. Yet one is an intellectual process and the other is a sensory one. 

That brings me to to one of the many benefits of a physical therapy like massage or shiatsu which is to allow it to take you to a place of quiet, and gentle reflection where you can develop a spirit of curiosity.