Why is having curiosity over judgment important?

What a lovely question, Thank you. I love the curiosity of helping people figure out their own healthiest food plan. Some nutrition systems take a judgement approach - eat this not that or good food vs bad food. With a curiosity approach, each client has a unique set of healing foods that we can find out about together.

Consider each as an approach. Now imagine a situation that you're going through at the moment. First, take a judgment approach. What are the thoughts and opinions that come up in that approach? Write them down.

Next, take a curiosity approach. What are the thoughts and opinions that come up in that approach? Write those down.

Then compare the two. What differences do you see? How do you feel when you're in each approach?

Curiosity is a higher function than judgment and allows for more possibilities and opportunities. Judgement narrows perception.

What is your meaning of importance? As in mandatory? Yikes!

You are the decider of what is important to you! And you can even change your mind!

So without much detail in your question, it is impossible to state that one is more important because each person has a personal view of it. Hence, judgment can have many meanings, just like curiosity.
The bottom-line, you make curiosity or judgment significant in the moment. Are you feeling judgemental yet? Well, if you have a bit of curiosity, read onward.

Judgment is a psyche perception to navigate our social and environmental terrain. It can be turned inward, or it can be turned outward, but judgment comes from the same place as curiosity. Both are an aspect of the psyche. That is mostly it, I think!

Of course, judgment is often defined as a defense mechanism. This aligns with various disciplines, including classically trained clinicians. But judgment can be much more than a condition to be rid of or a disorder to treat. It can be a measurement of one's own progress in life. However, when judgment has positive connotations, it is usually called insight or emotional intelligence. This might be the other side of judgment. It is a hunch, and you are the decider for yourself about it.

In the blandest view, judgment is nothing more than comparison (i.e., measuring two or more factors), and it usually results in a positive or negative perspective that influences living. The attorney, Max Ehrmann, said it eloquently in his 1927 pose poem, Desiderata:

(Excerpt)
"Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even to the dull and the ignorant; they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons; they are vexatious to the spirit. If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter, for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time."

It wouldn't be fair to put judgment below or above curiosity as a standard convention from my purview. That is called conventional wisdom! Instead, each has value in an equitable way. My guess, whichever one has the greater insight, would be my hint for taking the lead.

Briefly, curiosity and judgment go hand in hand. Both are, more or less, a surfacing perception of the mind. Once thoughts come into conscious view, it soon becomes a reality.
Thank you for your question.

This question is based on the idea that curiosity is more important than judgment, but here's a new approach to consider:

Curiosity and judgment can be equally important.

I'll explain why below and offer some guidance on how to make both curiosity and judgment work for you.

In today's culture, judgment is often frowned upon as if it's bad or wrong. We are told we shouldn't judge, and yet, every thing we do as a human is judgment. Our thoughts in themselves are judgements - about what is right, what is wrong, what is happening around us. So judging isn't wrong, and in fact, can be very helpful. The key here is using both judgment and curiosity in a helpful way.

Helpful judgment comes from a place of self trust. This means you approach yourself with compassion and openness so you can understand what's going on. This fosters your own curiosity so you can learn from your experiences. In this way, the curiosity and judgment work together. And from this space, we can ask ourselves questions like:
- What worked well about my approach? What was I thinking and feeling that allowed me to approach it in that way?
- What didn't work well? What might I change or do differently?
- How could I show up differently next time? What can I do to support myself in this?

All those questions require judgment - but the judgment isn't about questioning your value or goodness. Instead, the judgment is about how you can adjust your actions, your thinking, your approach so that you can continue supporting yourself and grow as you go.

In this way, your curiosity and judgment work together. One is not better than the other, and they both serve a purpose. The key is being curious and judging from a place of self support and self trust.

This is what I help my clients with. Because every one of us has a self confident soul within. And we can tap into this self confidence and truly trust ourselves so that we can make bold moves in our work and our lives. If you want help with this, you can schedule a Free Consultation here: https://heal.me/beliefseed

I love this question because it brings up the powerful Mindfulness concept of Non-Judgment. Replacing Judgment with Curiosity is a useful tool for interrupting the program of criticism and doubt we all deal with to some extent. Using a mindhack like this is a wonderful way to start reprogramming your thinking and living consciously instead of living on autopilot. Practicing that pivot in our perspective -- from judgment to curiosity -- is also an excellent way to develop self-compassion, which creates a solid foundation for peace.

First, I think it's important to point out that as humans, we all judge. We judge in others what we judge in ourselves. So, if we want to move to a place of self-acceptance, and increase self-esteem, it's important to understand that judgment is natural, but then it's super important to understand how that judgment served us in the past, and where we received the messages that this 'thing' was bad.

When we can question the judgment - Is lying bad? Is ALL lying bad? - the thoughts that we have about the thing, and become aware of our beliefs and whether we want to keep believing them, do these judgments serve us - then we can actively try to change them (if we want) and live a fully conscious life.

Curiosity is one’s mental body being creative and adventures which is a positive thought process response. One can be open for positive outcomes and answers not assumptions. Judgement on the other hand is one’s mental body being in a negative thought process that leads down a pathway of more negativity. It is harder to release a negative thought that can lead one to dismay, anger or judgement. The negative egoic mind is very strong and needs to be recognized, acknowledged and given thanks. This releases the negative thought process where positive creative ones can start forming. It is better to be inquisitive state where solutions can be created.

GREAT question, and I would ask you what does judgment do for you? When has judgement provoked you to change? How do you feel after you judge yourself? Ultimately judgement doesn't have any positive value to us. It's a way that we bully ourselves because we've attached expectations to certain things. So why judge at all?

Whereas curiosity is a whole different light. When you are curious there aren't any expectations. You don't know what to expect, it's almost as if you're in an experiment trying to understand how things might play out. What happens after curiosity? You learn and grow!!

Curiosity helps us understand and shows us opportunities to improve. Judgement just makes us feel bad. If you want to have a different experience would you rather judge it and feel bad OR be curious and learn how to improve it?

This is powerful and so important when it comes to everything and anything we do. As humans, we tend to be very judgmental, especially to ourselves. This is NOT productive in anyway.

Notice that there is no judgement in curiosity.

If you start to judge yourself (get upset with your spouse or children, eat something you know is an energy draining food, think an unkind thing about yourself), just notice... "Hmmm... isn't it interesting that I chose to... What is the experience that I was going for in making this choice?

By starting to notice why we do certain things, we can start to make positive changes in our behavior and actions.