The focus of Act Happy Week is to educate the public about purposeful actions you can take to create chemical shifts in your body that drive Positive Emotions.  This is Day 2:

295 words of content, including instructions for wearing Curiosity. Approximate content reading time: 1.18 minutes. And isn't your Happiness worth it?

This newsletter speaks to Leadership, Happiness, and Coaching in your life and work.

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I. ACT HAPPY WEEK, DAY 2: DANCE WITH THE UNKNOWN

Credit: Frozen 2, Disney    

Curiosity Can Conquer Fear

There’s a moment in the movie Frozen 2 when Queen Elsa, haunted by a mysterious voice, decides to shift from ignoring it (out of fear) to pursuing it (out of curiosity).

The song, Into the Unknown (watch it here), follows her transition from “I won’t” to admitting, “there’s a part of me that wants to go, into the unknown.”

We can accuse COVID-19 of complicating life, but the truth is that it was already damn complex and unpredictable long before the pandemic slammed us, and volatility will continue to be part of our reality after we emerge from quarantine.

Curiosity is a positive-leaning emotion that keeps us learning and engaged with life, looking for new possibilities. Curiosity says, “Tell me more!”  It moves us forward, asking questions, searching for new information, seeking to create the future rather than feeling trapped by it**

For many of us (myself included) the question lately has been “what’s next?” That question -- asked with shoulders hunched, teeth gritted, and fists clenched – creates heaviness in the body and brings up dread and anxiety, right? Ugh, not again!

What happens to anxiety when you start with a curious body instead? Try this:

1. Stand tall, open your chest, lean slightly forward.
2. Lift your eyes toward the horizon and keep your chin up
3. Let your energy rise yet keep your breathing full and deep.
4. Let your mind open, too.
5. Now, ask questions. What else? What’s next? In what ways might we…?

Notice how much lighter those questions feel? Bring THAT energy to the conversation!

Where anxiety smothers creativity, curiosity fuels it. We are entering a time of unfathomable possibility and a space of re-creating nearly everything.

Wear your body of Curiosity as we travel together into the Unknown!

**Source: The Field Guide to Emotions, Dan Newby & Curtis Watkins, 2019

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