Curiosity only does one thing, and that is to give. And what it gives you are clues on the incredible scavenger hunt of your life. – Elizabeth Gilbert

Curiosity gave me the clues to a powerful way of self healing and a way to access my heart wisdom.  I’m definitely feeling the love for curiosity!

I have been suffering from recurring headaches, which run their mind-dulling course over a period of five days, for a few years now, but I hit my limit when I had two almost back to back with just one brain clearing, pain free day in between. I was desperate for some relief.

And that’s when synchronicity came calling and curiosity followed closely behind. Not long after my back-to-back headaches, my husband and I were watching a sports documentary about the 85 Chicago Bears–that’s the year they won the Super Bowl. While we both love an inspiring story, coming across this particular story was a bit random, which makes the mysterious duo of synchronicity and curiosity all the more compelling.

One of the players they interviewed during the film was Jim McMahon, the Bears’ infamous quarterback, who was now suffering from dementia, vision problems and chronic headaches from the head trauma he had suffered while playing. In the documentary, they show him having an MRI of his neck, which revealed that the vertebrae in his neck were badly out of alignment, causing fluid build up in his brain; once they adjusted his neck, he was out of pain.

Our curiosity was piqued. Maybe just maybe, that car accident I had over 25 years ago, had caused some damage to my neck that was only showing its symptoms now…. I made an appointment with a chiropractor, who specializes in cranial cervical adjustments, and within a few visits to him, and after one hypnotherapy session (another case of synchronicity and following my curiosity), I was headache free. For over two months. Curiosity had indeed cured my headaches.

Curiosity is the most powerful thing you own. – Anonymous

And then, the headaches suddenly returned out of nowhere. But the strange thing was, my neck was fine. So, with my newfound love of being irrepressibly curious, I looked for clues and a pattern. These headaches appeared after I spent time with a particular kind of person in a particular kind of situation (I won’t go into details here). Let’s just call them stressful.

Aha! I realized then that my typical coping strategies clearly weren’t working and I was letting their negative energy into my head space :(. Ouch.

So, where did my insatiable curiosity lead me next? To the healing nature of guided meditation. How exactly did I get to there from a headache? I felt into when I most feel filled by a radiant light, which is the exact opposite of the dull, weak energy I feel with a headache. And the guided meditation I experienced in hypnotherapy flashed into my awareness.

What if I could guide myself in this way, so I could access it whenever I needed it most? What if there was a resource out there that would teach me how to do this? And that’s when I was “gifted” a powerful book, Healing and Transformation through Self-Guided Imagery, by Leslie Davenport, a therapist and ordained minister, who uses guided imagery in her own practice and at the Institute for Health and Healing in collaboration with California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco. Thank you, curiosity!

I devoured the case studies with fascination, and, when I felt ready, I practiced her self-guided imagery process. My experience was both profound and healing, far beyond even what I imagined was possible. It truly was, as Leslie Davenport writes, “a journey to the wisdom of the heart.”

Oh, and Liz Gilbert just happens to be featured on Krista Tippett’s podcast, On Being, this week. Her talk is entitled “Choosing Curiosity over Fear.” I highly recommend it.

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