What's the point without the capacity to wonder and be amazed?The old adage suggests that curiosity killed the cat. However, research suggests exactly the opposite.
According to work carried out by Todd Kashdan of George Mason University, curiosity is central to well-being. Kashdan found that people who rated themselves as curious reported higher levels of satisfaction with life than others, and less likely to derive pleasure from hedonistic behaviors such as sex, drugs and drinking.
Other work suggests that the benefits from curiosity stem from the intrinsic pleasure of finding out more, stretching yourself rather than sticking in a rut, and increased likelihood of spending time with others.
To help create a more curious life….
- Always order a dish you have never tried before in restaurants, take a different route to work or watch a TV programme you have never seen before.
- Ask yourself an interesting question each week. How do elephants communicate over hundreds of miles? Why do people laugh? Why are bananas yellow?
- Visit this site and go to a random webpage.
- Think of someone that you have worked with for years and write down a couple of words to describe that person. Now generate an alternative way of seeing them by thinking about their physical characteristics, hobbies and interests, or their dreams and ambitions.
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
The Importance of Curiosity
Via Richard Wiseman:
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Big Love's treatment of the mormon endowment cermony
From Wikipedia:
In Mormonism, the Endowment is an ordinance (ritual ceremony) designed to prepare participants to become kings, queens, priests, and priestesses in the afterlife. As part of the ceremony, participants take part in a scripted reenactment of the Biblical creation and fall of Adam and Eve. They also are taught highly symbolic gestures and passwords, thought to be needed to pass by angels guarding the way to heaven, and are instructed not to reveal these gestures and passwords. The ceremony also includes a washing and anointing, and receipt of a "new name" which they are not to reveal to others except at a certain part in the ceremony, and the receipt of the temple garments, which Mormons then are expected to wear under their clothing day and night throughout their life.This episode was highly controversial because of this depiction. I really thought it was well done and it made me wonder and feel a slight sadness that there is no room in my life for mysticism and ritual. How profound and sublime it must feel to believe so utterly and to take part in something so otherworldly.
Thursday, December 3, 2009
In which I post a fact from "Isaac Asimov's Book of Facts"
Ladies in Europe took to wearing lightning rods on their hats and trailing a ground wire--a fad that began after Benjamin Franklin published instructions on how to make them, in his almanac, Poor Richard Improved, in 1753.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Kita Daito: Personal Blog
As lonely and trying as my stay was I really miss my time on Daito.
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View from the plane.
Stairs leading to Daito Gu--The island's main shrine.
School grounds
A view from the Junior High School building
"my" cat.
The Port
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Basket rides mandatory
This thing is heavy if you're taller than the others.
Sumo
Okinawa Sumo (Kakuriki)
3rd and 4th graders
The view from my desk
Monday, November 30, 2009
Authors All
"Interntional concern for the minority who can’t read may soon extend to those who can’t publish. Reading—a defining characteristic of civilization as far back as ancient Greece when all Athenian citizens were expected to know how to read—is now taken for granted in industrialized democracies. Publishing by the few Athenian authors brought us drama, philosophy, science, mathematics, literature, and history. As readers, we consume. As authors, we create. Our society is changing from consumers to creators."
Sunday, November 29, 2009
From the Must See Department: Bridges
Langkawi Sky Bridge
Photo by ihtatho
Viaduct de Millau
Photo by tibchris
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