Some people move through life certain they already know.
They have answers for everything, opinions for everyone, and no curiosity left for themselves.
They don’t ask questions — because questions require humility, and humility opens the heart.

In the brain, this “closed” way of living locks the nervous system into defense mode.
The amygdala — the part that protects us from threat — stays in charge.
When you always have to be right, your mind can never rest.
There’s no space for wonder, empathy, or change.

Psychology calls it ego rigidity — a kind of inner armor built to protect fragile parts that once felt unsafe or unseen.
But that armor, over time, becomes a cage.
It keeps love out.
It keeps truth out.
It keeps life small.

When we stop looking in the mirror — not the one on the wall, but the one held up by experience — we stop growing.
The unexamined self becomes stuck in repetition, replaying the same stories, blaming the same ghosts.
The heart forgets how to soften.

But here’s the grace:
The moment someone begins to wonder, to ask, to say “maybe I don’t know,” the brain shifts.
Curiosity lights up the prefrontal cortex, the region linked to empathy, wisdom, and emotional regulation.
A little humility opens the door to connection.
A single question begins the healing.

Because it’s not knowledge that transforms us — it’s awareness.
Not certainty, but openness.
And the courage to finally look in the mirror and see — not who we pretend to be, but who we truly are.