Where anxiety triggers fear, curiosity drives fascination. Here’s how you can use curiosity to manage anxiety.
Anxiety is a crippling feeling that makes people fear trying something new; interactions, landscapes, and maybe even new social experiences. For someone with anxiety, the thought of navigating all these can trigger physical manifestations of discomfort like sweaty palms, an uneasy stomach, or breathing difficulties.
But fear doesn’t need to get the spotlight because there’s a natural way to counter this: Curiosity.
Every human has an innate sense of wonder that comes in the form of curiosity. There is a strong interest to discover new knowledge and experiences that naturally puts you in an attitude of openness to the world around you. When tapped into, a curious state of mind can empower you to break away from negative habits and gravitate toward positive ones. This is why it’s an effective superpower against anxiety — it’s a direct counter to your flight response.
A Closer Look at Curiosity
Curiosity is defined as a person’s desire to receive new information and experiences, and that desire is the very thing that inhibits anxiety from depositing negative thoughts in your brain. Where anxiety triggers fear, curiosity drives fascination.
Research shows that when you seek out new knowledge, the feeling of uncertainty becomes smaller and smaller. A healthy curiosity can foster a more relaxed disposition in life because every discovery helps you build a more realistic perception of what your environment is actually like. This breaks the hold of the fear-driven images that anxiety incites.
This means that all it takes is a single decision to change your response to anxiety: the decision to remain in a situation and explore it if and when it makes you feel uncomfortable. Carol Dweck, a Stanford University Professor and researcher, calls the curious mindset the growth mindset because it is in this state of mind individuals can envision possibilities. Curiously, Harvard Professor Ellen Langer uses the same definition for mindfulness as a counter against anxiety — one of the commonly encouraged cognitive practices in overcoming anxiety.
Like mindfulness, curiosity helps you actively draw distinctions in your situation. This distinction is essentially observing new things, or in the case of an anxious situation, see it in a different light. By doing so, you’re pulled back into the present, become grounded in context, and potentially draw out better perspectives.
The Biological Reversal
Whenever exposed to triggers, your amygdala releases norepinephrine and cortisol which makes you enter into a flight or fight mode. This is when your brain enters an anxious state and its natural reaction is to become defensive and judgmental. This can inhibit the ability to process anxious thoughts and objectively find a solution to the situation.
In extreme cases, an amygdala hijack can cause your emotions to completely overtake your mind and you lose control of your actions and emotions for some time. We typically see this happen in situations that induce chronic stress and where volatile bursts of emotions happen uncontrollably.
So, how do you regain control and flip the switch?
By letting curiosity biologically override your anxiety.
When you approach your situation in “curious mode”, your brain releases high levels of feel-good neurotransmitters called dopamine which fuel a feeling of positivity and happiness. This helps your brain open itself up to the possibility of exploring a different reality. Unlike the “anxious mode”, curiosity drives openness and questioning which naturally leads you to be more flexible.
But that’s not all there is to it. Another interesting facet of curiosity is that it activates the area of the brain that functions as the “reward center” whenever you achieve a goal or learn a new thing. Each new positive stimuli results in even more dopamine which is also responsible for creating feelings of pleasure. This essentially provides you a biological and psychological way to actively overcome anxiety by rewarding you with good feelings when you practice openness and learning.
Three Ways You Can Tap into Your Superpower
Wondering how you can use curiosity to manage anxiety? Let’s take a look at three exercises you can try:
Put on your “wonder” lens.
When you’re weighed down by anxiety, your view of the world is tainted negatively. One way to overcome this is by processing your surroundings through a different lens — a wonder lens.
One of the best displays of seeing the world through a lens of wonder is children. Because of their young age, children have an unclouded sense of wonder that naturally drives them to explore and experience new things. Although it’s primarily because they are truly experiencing things for the first time, the principle is the same when trying to see the world in a new light.
As you put on your wonder lens, aim to discover the world anew. You can pay attention to the little details you’ve never noticed before, spot the hidden beauty of the moment, and ask yourself questions like “what makes this object or moment interesting?”
The goal is to focus on your present journey instead of the destination. Tap into your childlike sense of wonder can help you become more grounded and refreshed.
Be empathetically curious toward others.
Every time anxiety tells you that a person’s response or behavior means they don’t like you, pause and practice empathic curiosity. Defined as the act of being curious about what other people are thinking and feeling. It is an effective way to offset the negative generalizations that anxiety can bring.
If you’re at a gathering and someone’s behavior seems off, instead of thinking that they’re mad at you, ask yourself: “Is my friend okay? Is he/she going through a difficult time?”
By doing this, you put the spotlight on the well-being of the other person and not on you. This practice not only helps stop the false narratives that anxiety brings but also helps you develop a healthy motivation to be genuinely empathetic about others.
Put a healthy dose of curious self-compassion in the limelight.
“Why do I feel this way?”
“What are the reasons I feel afraid?”
Research suggests that social anxiety can directly affect self-image and judgment bias. This means that every time you’re feeling anxious, your initial response would be to blame yourself.
Asking questions like these will block the self-judgment that anxiety can cause. Although responding objectively to an event is not an easy feat, it is not impossible. Practicing curious self-compassion is not just about actively seeking silver linings at the moment; it’s primarily about realistically processing your circumstances and acknowledging your feelings without passing judgment. The goal is to give yourself a chance to process what’s actually happening to you at that moment.
One way to actively practice curious self-compassion is through journaling. Writing down your thoughts also provides release from overwhelming emotions but also helps manage your anxiety and objectively identify your stressors. The key is to do this daily so you build a healthy habit of emotional processing. Apps like Reflectly can be handy in providing you a platform to journal anytime you need to pause and practice curious self-compassion because it can be downloaded directly on your phone.
As you practice journaling, remember that what you write matters, too. Be mindful that you don’t dwell on negative thinking, and keep in mind that the goal is to expose the lies and counter them with the truth.
Although adulthood may have dimmed your curiosity, it’s never too late to make the decision to tap into your exploratory side. Though anxiety might tell you that there are too many scary things in the world, as you allow yourself to be open to a curious state of mind, you can slowly break cognitive distortions and view the world in a new light.
