Wonderment Is for All Ages
By: Rochelle Silva
Tags: Wonder, Creativity, Self, Curiosity, Brain

“I have been thinking the whole of my life that I would demystify the universe. But what has happened is just the contrary. The deeper I went into existence, the more the mystery deepened. I am dying full of wonder, I am dying in wonder,”

said Albert Einstein, a widely acknowledged genius.

All of us are born with genius potential. Just observe a baby in a new environment. His eyes light up with wonder as he drinks in the scenery. He gurgles with sheer delight. As he grows up, he acquires knowledge with rapidity. Earlier, he was mystified by simple observations; for example, why do coconuts always fall to the ground? Now, he would tell you that it’s because of gravity and would explain the dynamics of free fall in detail.

Yet, in stark contrast to his early days, his eyes no longer flicker with curiosity. Years of lengthy syllabuses and exams have choked the spirit of creativity inside him and left it gasping for breath.

While it may not be the case with all of us, a large section of society faces this so-called ‘lack of curiosity’ as they age. Until 1998, even science supported this belief by assuming that humans are born with all the nerve cells they’ll ever have. However, Fred H. Gage (Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, California) and Peter Eriksson (Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Gothenburg, Sweden) discovered and announced that the human brain produces new nerve cells in adulthood.

Thus, it could be said that our inclination towards curiosity and learning is a matter of our attitude. If we have a positive attitude towards them, we would have a life filled with excitement and new experiences greeting us at every nook and cranny. If we have a negative attitude towards learning, it’s probably due to the experiences we’ve had in childhood.

Yet, you are not too late to be interested in the wondrous world around you; not too late to start discovering your own wonderful self and the talents that lie deep inside your psyche.

Those wearied by the demands of the world might say, “Oh! I don’t have time for all that daydreaming”. By doing so, they forget an important fact; as Robin Sharma explains in one of his podcasts, it’s the fact that “every single one of us has a deep need to be creative” and “when you live your creativity, you begin to feel happier”.

When you are inquisitive, your questions get answered. For example, I have always been fascinated by soap bubbles. To an outsider, it may seem so childish to blow them and stare at their shimmering glory as they glide up to the heavens. Yet when you learn about surface tension in a physics lesson and some of your questions are answered, you’re much happier than an individual who just memorizes equations for the sake of passing an exam. To quote Albert Einstein again,

“The important thing is not to stop questioning.”

Let me ask you a few questions. When did your eyes last light up in wonder? When did you last feel happy about acquiring a new skill which you never thought you had? Can you remember the time you last brought out the artist inside you- be it through a new poem, a painting, a thoughtful gift idea or even a never-heard-before recipe for cupcakes? Just wondering…