Finding more ease through curiosity instead of certainty
After deciding not to throw money at my hallway storage debacle last week, (in case you missed that story, you can catch up here), I’ve spent a lot of time reorganizing the space using things I already have.
What surprised me wasn’t that I've found a better setup.
It was realizing how many different ways I could arrange some of the same pieces I already had.
The moment I stopped looking at it as a problem I needed to fix and got curious about what else was possible, I started seeing solutions that had been there all along.
That realization didn’t stop in my hallway.
It's followed me through the rest of the week.
For months I’ve been out of eucalyptus essential oil.
Every time I’d pick up the empty bottle, the conversation in my head went something like this:
“I really wish I had eucalyptus oil, but I’m not ready to place another order.”
That was the end of the conversation.
This week, something shifted.
The thought became:
“I really wish I had eucalyptus oil, and I’m not ready to place another order.”
That tiny shift created room for another possibility.
I suddenly realized I could simply stop at Whole Foods and buy one bottle from another brand until I was ready to place a larger order with my preferred brand.
Would it be as good? Probably not.
Was it better than being out completely and having that conversation loop though my mind again? Absolutely.
I had a similar experience while managing my weekly cash flow.
And again in the way I was rushing through my breakfast in the mornings.
I started noticing how often I unintentionally add stress to my days—not because life is stressful in the moment, but because I stop being curious about the patterns I’ve gotten used to.
I do something the way I’ve always done it, so my brain quietly decides, "This is just how we do things."
It never occurs to me that there might be another option.
Our brains are wired to create habits. They look for efficiency. They build familiar pathways so we don’t have to rethink every decision we make throughout the day.
We need our brain to do that. Otherwise we’d be constantly overwhelmed.
But if we don’t stay curious, those well-worn patterns can quietly become limitations instead of supports.
It’s made me curious about how many of the small frustrations I experience possibly aren’t actually caused by my circumstances, but are caused by assumptions I haven’t been curious about…yet.
Not because they’re true.
Simply because they’re familiar.
Often when something takes me out of the familiar the brain immediately decides "this is a problem that needs fixing", so I start searching for the "right" solution.
But when I get curious, I start asking different questions.
I wonder if there’s another way...
I wonder what’s possible here...
I wonder what changes if I stop assuming this is the only option...
Curiosity doesn’t guarantee an answer.
But it creates space.
And sometimes that little bit of space is enough to notice possibilities that have been there all along.
Sometimes what feels like certainty is really just familiarity.
And maybe certainty isn’t always what brings us the most ease.
Sometimes it’s curiosity.
Because the moment we’re willing to question the patterns we’ve been running on autopilot, we create space for possibilities that can make life feel a little lighter.
